Nana Frema, a member of the ‘Keshi 3’ which placed third at the Divas edition of the Vodafone Icons reality contest, has told NEWS-ONE that after the reality show things went very bad for her to the extent that she actually attempted to kill herself on three different occasions.
“This is something I’m not scared of saying: that I have tried suicide thrice. Because of that my team and I are trying to launch my foundation called ‘Stay Alive To Save A Life’.
“I thought life was slow… especially after ICONS; and I had the fame but there were no resources to sustain the fame and my career was not moving on and then there were issues of love gone bad and no family to rely on. I was down and alone and got to a point I thought it was better I was dead. I attempted it and when it did not work, I prayed to God to kill me,” Nana Frema told NEWS-ONE.
The adorable singer and good-looking actress said she was broke after the contest because she had spent her savings on buying credits to vote for her group to win.
Nana Frema continued: “It gave me fame but a lot did not happen for us; we came third and it was a winner-take-all competition so we had nothing. Winning was based on a hundred percent votes. We did a lot of voting and you can’t imagine the money that we put in there. But that is okay; it was a reality show.
“I put all my money into it, even money that I was going to use to rent a place and everything; I put it into Vodafone Icons voting and I came out of the competition with nothing. Everyone now knows me because I became famous with a different life that I did not have money to meet… I struggled and that was why people did not hear from me immediately after Vodafone Icons… After the competition, people started coming around because of my fame but when they realised I was broke than ever, everyone started withdrawing again and you could imagine. I remained indoors and all that and could not go out.”
She explained that apart from the post-reality show challenges, there were other reasons she wanted to kill herself but her plan did not work out:
“There was a different reason for each time I wanted to kill myself. One was when I was going through very deep problems after the reality show and I had become emotional and my family told me to go die if I really wanted to since I was complaining life was difficult. I realised I had no love and no one cared whether I was dead or alive and it made me lose interest in life.
“The second time, I had a heartbreak and it was very painful. I have had my worse share of heartbreak and I had my worse moments. There was no one to talk to. And then thoughts of suicide came in and the temptation was strong. The third time was on similar issues, which also had to do with emotional matters and feeling down, lonely and rejected. There were times I even prayed I should be killed by God.”
Frema recounted a rather miraculous instance when she intentionally gulped down a large quantity of a poisonous substance with the intention to die but just when the substance started having the expected effect on her, the mother noticed what was happening and rushed her to the hospital.
“Many Ghanaians still think people who contemplate suicide are stupid. But trust me, telling people who contemplate suicide that they are stupid does not help. It rather worsens their situation,” Frema noted and said she has overcome the suicidal tendencies and now has a firm belief that suicide is not an option under any circumstances.
BOUNCE BACK
Nana Frema explained that her passion for music and belief that hard work, consistency and dedication would make her a successful musician encouraged her to return to the music scene with a new song, ‘Sweet Boy’.
“Sweet Boy talks about love—the real love that exists in real life and not the type we see in movies and read about in story books.
“I got the inspiration from a very good friend who was going through some problems in her love relationship. I thought of singing about it and bringing out a real story that people could see themselves in: portraying real love from a Sweet Boy. And we have put the video on YouTube. I did the video with Guru,’ she added.
NEWS-ONE would continue with the remaining part of the interview in which Nana Frema gave alarming revelations about her life story and career path. –MORE SOON.