Johannesburg-born Cape Town-raised Cailyn Shelby is a very welcome recent arrival to the world of music that’s already teasing the world with two playlist-hugging hits.

 

Her August 2021 debut single, “My Four Friends”, produced by Marc Ronin, had radio and streaming platforms pricking up their ears and paying attention to Cailyn’s rich lyrical delivery, coupled with equally enticingly topical melodies. 

 

Not one to rest on radio rotation, Cailyn kept her head down and worked towards collaboration with Dean White in mid-November last year. The result, “The One (For Me)”, was equally well-received, serving as confirmation that she was anything but a one-hit-wonder.

 

So, who is Cailyn Shelby? Yes, her music’s on the radio and playlists worldwide, but the genesis of the young creative’s need to share her music with the masses began soon after she’s learned to walk. “For as long as I can remember, I have always loved singing. I have always loved performing,” Cailyn admits. “My mom kept this ‘baby book’, and when I went to pre-primary school, the teachers would need to write in how my day at school went. In one of those reports, my class was introduced to the piano, and from that day onward, each time we had a music day, my poor teacher was unable to leave the lesson. I refused to let her go. I simply wanted her to keep playing and singing the entire day.

 

Fast-forward to Cailyn, aged 17, attending a song-writing course. That was when she finally found her voice, in the sense that she could eventually articulate her sound and, most notably, her own lyrical identity that now permeates the first two commercial singles that bare her name.

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After releasing “My Four Friends” in August 2021, Cailyn suddenly became popular. Interview requests flooded in, and a new audience was curious about this extraordinary voice. “I saw my music on Apple Music and Spotify; it was brilliantly terrifying to hear a song I had written during the pandemic, about the pandemic, while still in a pandemic, bringing so much joy to the world,” she recalls. 

 

Cailyn writes in the moment, capturing what affects her. Now she’s in a place to define her persona. “I want people to pay attention to the song writing,” she explains. “Creating and hearing a song that completely sums up how you are feeling in that moment is a joy to listen to on so many levels. If I can deliver that to someone else, I have succeeded in my quest.”