Libianca Nearly Quit Music Before PEOPLE Changed Her Life

Cameroonian singer Libianca says she was preparing to abandon music when she wrote the song that would later become her global breakthrough, People.

Speaking on Culture Daily on 3Music TV and Pluzz 89.9 FM, the singer said she was 22, had dropped out of college to pursue music and was struggling financially when she reached what she described as the lowest point of her life.

“I was ready to actually quit music at the time. I didn’t have any money. I didn’t have anything and I’m like, bro, like I’m 22 and there’s nothing to show for it,” she said.

Libianca said she had given herself two years to make progress in music after leaving college, and was prepared to abandon her faith if nothing changed.

She said the difficult period eventually became the inspiration for People, which she wrote as a way of expressing what she was experiencing.

“I said, let me just cry and sing this off my chest,” she recalled.

The song was released in 2022 and went on to become her breakthrough record. It reached number two on the UK Official Singles Chart and topped the UK Afrobeats chart.

Libianca said she did not write the song with commercial success in mind.

“I didn’t really plan for it to become what it became. I was like, if only one person can hear this and feel and it touched their hearts, that’s more than enough," she said.

The singer said the song eventually helped listeners feel understood and contributed to conversations around emotional struggles.

Her account is consistent with earlier interviews in which she has described People as emerging from a period when her mental health was at a low point.

Libianca said the moment she realised the song was spreading came after she posted it on TikTok.

She recalled waking up to her manager telling her the song had reached about 80,000 views on the platform and was continuing to rise.

“My goodness, like, we’re making it out of the hood,” she remembered thinking.

The sudden success brought international travel, performances and collaborations, but Libianca said she had little time to adjust to her new circumstances.

“I barely had any time to adjust to the new life,” she said, explaining that she moved from Minneapolis to travelling between countries including the UK, France and Germany.

She said much of that period remains a blur because events were moving too quickly.

Despite the success of People, Libianca said she no longer uses the song’s popularity as the standard against which she measures her music.

“It used to be the marker, I think a year after it dropped. And I almost lost my mind doing that,” she said.

She added that the popularity of a song does not necessarily determine its quality.

“There are a lot of mediocre songs that are like really big. Doesn’t mean that they’re great,” she said.

Libianca is now working on an album which she says has gone through three versions before reaching its final form. She said she is currently moving between Ghana, Nigeria and the UK while completing the project.