WHEN Mildred Mark-Hansen, Mercy Quarshie and Monica Tawiah started singing as a small gospel group at Larterbiokorshie 1 JSS back in 1995 where they were schooling, little did they know that in less than a decade after that, their names will be appearing in the highly competitive world of Hip-life. The trio, who obviously got their name from their first names are already causing such a stir in the local music industry, being the first female group to settle for secular music, hip-life to be specific. The Mirror learnt in an interview with them last week that, they are yet to release their debut which has Kote as the working title. Truth is Triple M have already succeeded in winning people’s hearts with this particular song, little wonder it is being considered for the album title. The lyrics in Kote is the complaints of a woman whose husband abandons her and shirks his responsibilities. She pleads with the police to beat him up but like a typical woman with so much sympathy, she sings in twi “beat him but please not too much else he will die.” Mildred, the leader of the group, told this reporter that, they are very excited to be in the studio since it is the beginning of greater things to happen. She recollects “back in JSS, we used to sing in some churches and surrounding schools, we had the confidence to go professional when we were asked to compose a song for our seniors’ leavers party.” “The response was very good and all those present were so impressed they really urged us on,” she added with so much excitement. After that, Mildred said they wrote a lot of other songs and were invited to perform in schools like Bethel Academy, Owusu-Mills and Salvation Army. Their first “public” appearance, according to Mildred who writes most of their songs was at the Top Radio Carnival held last year after which they stunned the audience and viewers during the TV3 organised Christmas Special which was telecast live. Since then, the three young women (they are all 20-year-olds) have been in the studios putting finishing touches to their debut which they say will come out very very soon, thanks to the immense support of their producer Jeff Quaye and manager King Luu. The trio are not just colleagues but very close friends who do almost everything together, they told The Mirror that they wanted to attend the same secondary school but their parents had different options so they ended up in different schools, that however did not separate them from each other in any way. Mildred attended Swedru Secondary School, Mercy was at Ebenezer Secondary School while Monica attended Labone Secondary School. They certainly believe in the importance of education and what it can do to their individual personal development so all three will enrol at Jayee later in the year to pursue a Diploma in Business Studies. Perhaps it should not be too much of a surprise that the girls are exhibiting so much talent, two of them are related to prominent people in the local music industry. Mildred is the daughter of Jerry Hansen of Ramblers International Band, and Mercy happens to be the niece of Franklina Jones, a gospel artiste. King Luu, the young manager of the trio told The Mirror that he was told about them by his friend Jeff Quaye who happens to be the manager of the group and after listening to their works, he was convinced that they had a lot of potential. “I told him that they were not very mature and that we had to work on bringing them up, for which reason the publicity on them seem to be low.” King Luu believes that once the album is out, people will see for themselves what the group has up their sleeves. For now Triple M cannot wait to come out with Kote and hiplifers out there better watch out, they are out to outdo everyone.