Hat tip: Euromight
Source: Myra Maimoh
Myra Maimoh, a smart and dynamic native of Cameroon, based in Germany seems to have a magnetic, almost magical pull to music not common for newcomers. Her genuine love for music together with genuine love for people, a trait which seems to be disappearing at these modern times are not only heard but felt in her music. It gets you dancing but also embraces you lovingly and whispers love to your soul in times of quiet. When asked how she describes her music, she said “my music is for dancing feet but also and especially for people with dreams, hopes, fears and worries”. “Answer’d Me” – her debut album is a truly multifarious 11 track piece covering a wide spectrum of modern R&B/Soul/Pop with some Afro influence.The difficulty in finding a known name as a tag or label for her combined with a truly authentic and grounded persona, such convincing, deep, but still yet a new-to-the-scene craft style is the best evidence of true and unique talent.
Even at the tender age of 6 years, Myra Maimoh would create her own “orchestra” with kids in her neighborhood getting them play mostly percussive instruments (read empty food cans and sticks) with her of course as the main vocalist in the middle. This happened quite often, the reasons for it being her convincing musicality already manifesting at that age. Her singing would bring neighbors out of their houses over and over, and not to scold but to listen and enjoy. She was a kind of moving, singing machine which her brothers could not always stop. After singing all the songs she had in her head, she would improvise and sing. The improvised songs were of course unknown to her brothers, so, they did not find it funny at all and therefore came up with a term, “forming” as a way of teasing her.
“Forming “actually meant “formed songs” or “created melodies” and of course created melodies were not to be sung since they were not known to any human apart from Myra. Each time she got in to the “improvise mood”, they would scream, “forming, forming”, urging her to stop singing since that could easily go on all day long. If there are people who have experienced life in almost all its colors and especially not the best colors, Myra Maimoh certainly belongs to them. She is extremely adventurous, philosophic (a bigger mind), spiritual, deep, loving and sensitive . Traits well reflected by her music. Before getting into this fresh, great, inspiring and very promising working relationship with Hitsmith Producer, Mbachi Halle (writer, Producer and Engineer of “Answer’d Me”, also of same origin Bamenda, Cameroon); they had long talks about working together with her always enthusiastically expressing her deepest wish – to create albums of extravagant and genuine musicality while completely leaving out the pressure of doing what others do. That request was answered – “Answer’d Me”.
Myra Maimoh grew up in a big, Christian family in Bamenda with her mother being her greatest musical influence not by singing and dancing as we all might assume, no – that lady shopped records!! She shopped anything that sounded great like Skeeter Davies, James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, African blues and throughout the spectrum from country music, traditional African music to jazz and pop. Myra started singing and dancing while still in preschool at the age of 3, being what she would easily do all day. She wrote her first set of songs and stories at the age of 13, examples being “It’s not too late”, “Life is short”, “Aberni ma Papa” and “Our Lord is always there”. “It’s not too late” later became a hit song interpreted by the Cherubic Queens, a very successful Cameroonian girl band in which she sang. She joined the Cherubic Queens at age 15, wrote and performed with them 3 years long. Myra has had an extremely intensive and extensive musical career ranging from singing and dancing with group – Crystalz, which won many inter-college awards for best performances. She was crowned Miss Coca Cola 1998 and 2001, a Coca Cola sponsored competition of arts. Every competition she took part in was almost always sure to end with her winning awards for best song, poem or performance. From 2001 till 2005, Myra Maimoh was not only a high profile studio vocalist recording in some of the country´s greatest studios for the greatest artists, she was among the most hired doing everything from background vocals, lead vocals to jingles for national and private radio stations.
For the past 5 years, she’s been living in Germany and has completed her International Business Administration degree program. Throughout this period, her musical activities consisted of live group performances, lead singing in choirs, solo performances and studio vocalist till the beginning of 2010 as she joined the Hitsmith family. The vocal recordings were completed May ending after an intensive working period with sessions often as long as 12 hours leaving her creep out of the studio at the end…. Well, still singing though! She lived at the Hitsmith Studios and the team described the time with her as feeling like Christmas even though it was such hard work. Mbachi Halle (Producer/ Writer & Engineer of “Answer’d Me”) was often heard saying ” If every other artist I work with would be like Myra Maimoh, I must have the best job in the world.”