Ghanaian Afropop star Wendy Shay has opened up about the inspiration and challenges behind her hit single “It’s Too Late.”
Speaking in an exclusive interview on Angel FM’s Sports Salad, she revealed that the song was born out of a complicated copyright experience surrounding her earlier project, “Vivian.”
According to Wendy Shay, the original “Vivian” was already a viral Francophone hit on TikTok.
“Before releasing It’s Too Late, a month before I released Vivian, it was a hit song already from Francophone music and it was viral on TikTok. When I heard the song, it was nice to me, the story behind it, and the original artiste was blind, so I did my rendition and brought the song out,” she recounted.
However, complications began when she attempted to clear the copyright properly.
“So before I was about to release the song, I contacted the artiste, Prince Aime, because of copyright infringement. We were given licenses, I signed, and everything was okay,” she said.
“But after, they were demanding a different amount. Before that, I spoke to someone close to the artiste and we were given an amount to pay, which we did. Exactly two weeks later another person called claiming he was the real manager of Prince Aime. So the person we paid the first time was the wrong person, and we had to pay another amount to him too,” she explained.
Wendy Shay stated that her team made the second payment as well and cleared the payment but the situation didn’t end there.
“We paid the money to him too, and we moved on. After the song was released and went viral, the manager called me again claiming I was earning more so we should sign another contract. We signed another deal,” she said.
According to Wendy Shay, she endured enough and couldn’t handle it anymore so she ended everything.
“I said, you know what, let’s leave everything here because music is very spiritual, and if we drag issues, the song won’t get any recognition. So let’s end everything,” she pointed out.
She added that this experience pushed her to create something original which led to the birth of “It’s Too Late.”
“I said to myself that I’m very creative, so I can bring out something else. It was through the Vivian situation that I released It’s Too Late, and now it has become a hit song,” she disclosed.
