Pauline Wendo’s heart has always been in music. But things had not been working out to let her live out her dream. And so two years ago, she went back to school to pursue a degree in Hotel Management.
She got it and was getting jobs, but she wouldn’t shake away the nudge to pursue music.
“I decided, let me just try again and see what happens. If it doesn’t work out this time, maybe it was not meant to be,” she says.
Down south – more than 4,500 kilometres – in South Africa, award-winning musician and club DJ, Prince Kaybee, was putting together his fourth album when he started an online experiment.
He released a beat on Twitter, challenging other artists to do something with it.
Pauline, while scrolling her Twitter feed, saw it, liked it, put down some lyrics, and uploaded a video of the recording.
“I kept singing and I realised, oh my God. I cannot get enough of this song. I need to record it before I lose my mind,” she says.
Once online, her video and really her voice took a life of its own. Several shares later, it got to Prince Kaybee’s timeline. He liked what Pauline did with the beat so much that he put it on his latest album, The 4th Republic, released on March 5, 2021.Listen to Pauline, aka Polaris, as she shares how that opportunity over the internet has reinforced her passion for music, rhythm and lyrics.
PS: You might notice that the recording studio looks like a bedroom. That’s because it’s actually the producer’s house, a bedsitter in Lang’ata, Nairobi.
Check out Pauline’s song here.
