Veteran highlife musician Akosua Agyapong has revealed that she was offered what she described as a hard substance by a band leader just moments before she stepped on stage for her first major performance decades ago.

Speaking in an interview on Joy Prime on July 13, 2026, the celebrated singer recalled the tense moment backstage at the Arts Centre in Accra for a show that had drawn over 1,000 people, making it one of the biggest moments of her early career.

She recalled that while awaiting her performance, the leader of the band she would be performing with started offering a certain liquid to members of his team.

"He had something in a bottle. He had a small cup. He went around giving it to his team. Then he came to me and said, 'Take this, it will ginger you and help you perform well,'" she recalled.

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However, Akosua Agyapong turned him down flat.

"I took him to the curtains, opened them slightly, and told him, 'You see the woman sitting in the audience there, that's my mum. I cannot disappoint her.'

"I have performed in front of 6,000 students. So I'm not shy, and I can perform," she told him.

She walked on stage without it and performed.

Decades later, she says the lesson from that backstage moment is one she wants every young entertainer to hear because the same pressure she faced then is still being applied to young entertainers today.

"Whatever you start with, you end with it. People introduce them to some things. The musicians, the actors, the actresses; some of them, their managers will say, 'Oh, you have to do this or you'll be this. You have to wear this or you'll be this.' No. Say no. Because the God that gave you that talent will see you through," she cautioned.

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