Elsy Wameyo, a Kenyan-Australian singer, rapper, and producer, has released Saint Sinner, her 13-track debut album. For the album, Elsy returned home to Kenya and enlisted a team of producers and fellow songwriters including Wuod Omollo, Fancy Fingers, and Ywaya Tajiri, to help inform her new work.
“I am not a saint nor a sinner. I am a child yearning to perfect and mimic my father’s glory as I continuously fall short. Still, I courageously and resiliently get back up to fight. I understand that evil is within me. It is my nature, though I sit and walk beside the king. He shields me from the storm and wraps me in His arms. Refined by the fire and set apart for greatness. Lord, it is I, Saint Sinner,” says Elsy on the album.
The tracks featured on the album all tell stories of fearlessness and boldness on Repercussions and Quagmire. Unafraid to go to places of pure sadness and grief, Slowly Slipping demonstrates Elsy’s ability to move between shades of vulnerability while matching them with natural beauty and strength.
A central theme that weaves through the second half of Saint Sinner is endurance, and a return of faith, explicitly felt with the single Conquer. A sound of realignment is heavily heard as Elsy battles with inner demons, temptations, and worldly voices to find a way back to her guiding spirit.
The success of her 2022 debut EP Nilotic catapulted Elsy into the limelight; touring internationally, performing across stadiums, and collecting accolades. However, with this dream came the reality of the music industry’s toxic underbelly. This uncomfortable season brought her to a new creative touchstone, a place of reclamation and self-empowerment in the form of her debut studio album, ‘Saint Sinner’.