Born into a middle-class family in Takoradi,[1] Ghana, Gyan started playing the piano when he was five years old and went professional at the age of 12.
[3] By the age of 18, Gyan had made more than a million dollars, "had hung out with Elton John and Mick Jagger, played for Britain's Queen and cruised on champagne-drenched luxury ocean-liners to island-hop in the Caribbean".
[1] In 1977, he met Marvin Gaye, Peter Tosh, Stevie Wonder, and Third World during the FESTAC event in Nigeria.
[3] He left Osibisa to go solo in 1979 and recorded the single "24 Hours in a Disco", which hit the charts in the United States and the UK.
[2] Kiki Gyan died alone and impoverished in a church bathroom in Ghana, the cause of death being AIDS and drug-related complications.