They say passion can take you places and ambition can keep you there—such is the case for singer Alyn Sano, whose unending love for music compelled her to set everything aside to pursue a dream that she never thought she would as a child.

She is by far considered one of the most talented yet underrated female vocalists, but Alyn Sano is slowly but surely claiming her perch and going by her mega ambition, it is just a matter of time and she will hit the international stage.

For an athletic girl who grew up thinking she would become a footballer, music only came into the picture in 2015 when she joined a band to do live performances. The 26-year-old has never looked back.

"I really didn't know I would become a musician, but as soon as I joined the live music [band] in 2015, I knew I was going to be a musician for the rest of my life,” Sano says, adding that upon joining the band people started telling her that she is a good singer.

She also started to realise how emotional people would get whenever she would perform with the live band. It is at this point that she developed aspirations to be a musician by profession and started practicing to that endeavour.

With a big brother who is a music producer and can sing as well, it was easy for Sano to have a foundation to start from. After graduation from Akilah Institute (now Davis College) in hospitality management and leadership in 2017, she decided to pursue a career in music.

The singer released her first professional song in 2018, titled "Naremewe wowe” and has since outed a number of songs including "None”, "We the best”, "For us”, "Joni” and many others, etching her name among the very best on the local music scene.

Joining The Voice Afrique Francophone

Last month, the "Kontorola” singer made headlines when she took part in The Voice Afrique Francophone semi-finals in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, but unfortunately, she could not make it to the finals after she failed to gather enough votes to be among the last four.

In 2019, Sano was contacted by someone who encouraged her to audition for The Voice Afrique Francophone, a continental music contest for French speaking countries, which Rwanda had joined for the first time.

When she was contacted, she said "why not? This is what I do for a living”. From the onset, she was required to first send a video of herself singing for the organisers to see if she is good enough, after which they would line her up for a blind audition.

Though she thought of giving it a shot, Sano was hesitant because she thought the competition was too big for her.

The person kept reminding her and on the day of the deadline, she submitted the video. The first video she sent was in the dark, they didn’t like it.

The determined friend put in a word for her and convinced the organisers that she was good and should be given a second chance. They said ok but asked her to send a video where she was more visible and audible.

"The second time I went somewhere where there was light and everything, so I did it perfectly and they liked it and they sent me an e-mail. ‘Congratulations, you've been selected,” Sano recalls.

She was among the six selected from Rwanda. Each country had six representatives from the onset. The show was scheduled to start in September 2019 in South Africa but it was postponed due to xenophobia protests in the country.

In January 2020, the contestants were able to do the blind auditions and from then on, she was able to go through the preliminary stages until she reached the knockout stage of the competition.

"I also passed the knockout stage by the grace of God. It's not because of me to be honest, and it gave me the opportunity to go for the semi-finals where it happened now in Ivory Coast,”

"It happened almost, a year and a half later because of Covid-19, which we didn't know was coming,” recalls Sano.

For Sano, making it to the semi-finals was a major milestone, emerging among the top 12 out of 106 super talents individuals who contested.

"Being among the 12 means that you are all so talented, all of you have something unique. So here, there is nothing to judge in the voice. Now, it is the public to judge through votes,” Sano says, adding that votes counted 100 per cent for one to proceed.

With the remaining West African contestants having an edge over her in terms of voting, Sano stood no chance. Her fate was compounded by the fact that the voting number she had shared was changed at the last minute.

The judges were only looking for four people out of 12 to go to the finals. She needed all the votes to progress.

Despite last ditch efforts to push for votes and fellow singers back home campaigning, it was a little too late to match up the thousands of votes that her West African counterparts were gathering.

"To be honest, I liked the experience even though it was negative, but I liked it because it taught me. I felt like I'm two years older than I went,” Sano says when asked about how she felt when she was eliminated.

"It was so stressful, being in the country where everybody else feels at home apart from you. I really felt really far away from home. In South Africa, I felt a little bit home because it was an English-speaking country and I'm an Anglophone more than I felt when I was in Ivory Coast,” she adds.

Sano was hard done by the fact that back home people could not watch the show live and had a dedicated number to vote for her while her West African counterparts enjoyed the popularity of Vox Africa TV in that part of the continent and country and dedicated numbers for people to vote for them.

"I have a feeling Rwanda was not really considered so much as other countries were when it came to voting. That's why I really didn't like the experience so much, but I stay positive because we learn from experiences. I learned a lot,” she says.

If it wasn’t for that, she believes she stood a chance like other contestants but the chances started dwindling when they changed the number while other countries like Togo, Cameroon and the hosts had their dedicated lines for people to vote.

Nevertheless, Sano is thankful for the people who supported her all the way, adding that participating in The Voice Afrique Francophone added something to her career and CV, even though she didn't win it.

What next?

The "Joni” songstress remains very optimistic about her musical journey and hopes to come up with albums and inspire girls to explore their talents.

"Where I see my music 5 years to 10 years from now is having albums -sold albums, changing many people's lives, especially females in the music industry because that's my dream,” Sano says.

She also hopes to be touring the world, performing in different countries, people singing along to her music.

Sano says she is currently working on several projects including her debut album which she says she has been postponing because she really wants it to come out strong in terms of quality and content.

To the young girls aspiring to do music: "There is no easy path to success, put in work, save and start with something of your own rather than wait for favours that might come with strings attached.”

 To record her first song, Sano saved up her transport fare by walking to and from school because to her, begging for help to do what she loves is not something she looked forward to. To date, she saves whatever she earns and invests it in her next project.

As for dating, the singer is cagey to divulge whether she is seeing someone or not but for now the focus is on her music.