Cape Town singer-songwriter Cailyn Shelby keeps writing, keeps learning, keeps pitching up  and her new single “Addicted To You” is further proof that perseverance and hard work matter.

I first wrote about Cailyn Shelby in 2021, when a young Cape Town songwriter was beginning to make people take notice with a song called “My Four Friends.”

Five years later, the most satisfying thing is not simply that Cailyn is still making music. It is that she has kept working.

She keeps writing. She keeps recording. She keeps learning. She keeps turning up.

For the past five years she has attended Music Exchange (MEX), listening, networking and absorbing the realities of an industry in which talent alone is rarely enough. She has released singles, made an album, collaborated with established producers, experienced the highs and inevitable frustrations of building a career, and continued to put herself and her music out there.

Now comes “Addicted To You,” released on 18 September 2026, and it feels like another important marker in that journey.

It is a hook-laden pop earworm, polished, immediate and radio-friendly exactly the sort of track that deserves the attention of pop radio programmers across South Africa.

But the story behind the single may be even more revealing than the finished recording.

A song that grew up with its writer

“Addicted To You” did not happen overnight.

The idea dates back years to a music-production course, when Shelby recorded the sound of a crackling fire and began building a beat around it. The song was eventually put aside, only to be rediscovered later while she was flying between the UK and South Africa.

Working with producers Daniel Baron and Marc Ronin, she revisited and rebuilt the track.

“I feel like the song grew up with me a little bit, seeing it go through so many different versions and come out with such an amazing song that I am so proud of.”

That sentence could almost describe her career.

Songs evolve. Artists evolve. Careers evolve. The important part is continuing to do the work.

From four walls to a growing career

Shelby’s breakthrough arrived in August 2021 with “My Four Friends,” written during Covid isolation and inspired by the four walls surrounding her.

The song connected. It gained radio support and ultimately reached No. 1 on Jacaranda FM and Ekurhuleni FM.

Five years later, it remains essential to her live set.

“People still come up to me and say how much they enjoy that song. I wrote the song during Covid about being isolated and becoming friends with the four walls around, so it’s pretty cool to now see how many people resonated with it.”

More importantly, “My Four Friends” changed the direction of her life.

She says it “springboarded me into the music industry” and brought her into contact with producer Daniel Baron, with whom she would go on to make her 14-track debut album, Growing Pains, released in December 2023, as well as her latest single.

Along the way came songs including “The One (For Me),” “Best Mistake,” “Favourite Ex,” “Call Me” and “No Longer Me & You.”

“Best Mistake” earned a place on the cover of Spotify’s SAlt playlist and became a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition.

These things add up.

That is often what building a career actually looks like: not one magical moment, but hundreds of smaller decisions to continue.

Music as an outlet

For Shelby, songwriting is deeply connected to everyday life.

“Music is my outlet,” she says. “I rely on it to process emotions and events, to cheer me up or comfort me when I feel down. It is the one constant I can turn to at any moment.”

Her songs, she says, are about “life and navigating all the different moments that shape us,” although she enjoys slipping humour and private jokes into her writing.

Inspiration usually begins simply — sitting at a piano or picking up a guitar and playing until something catches her attention. And occasionally? “The shower always throws out a few ideas.”

What she particularly enjoys is taking something as rough and intimate as a first voice memo and gradually shaping it into a finished recording.

That process can be frustrating, she admits, especially when a song feels as if something is missing but you cannot work out what it is. It is also where persistence becomes important.

Ambition without pretending

There is an appealing self-awareness about Shelby.

Asked about fame, she replies: “I’ll tell you when I’m famous…”

Asked about her dream gigs, however, there is no hesitation: sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden and Cape Town Stadium.

Her biggest fear? “Not achieving my goals.” And what makes her stand out? “I think my honesty.”

That honesty runs through her answers. She describes herself in five words as creative, joyful, stubborn, caring and supportive. She admits that on stage she sometimes panics about “being too awkward,” and recalls once having to improvise her way through a performance because of a sinking microphone stand.

Her musical tastes are wonderfully broad too: Michael Jackson’s “You Rock My World,” Don McLean’s “American Pie,” Britney Spears’ “Gimme More,” ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” and Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine” all make her essential playlist.

Michael Jackson remains one of her heroes, while Aaron Dessner is at the top of her list of dream songwriting collaborators.

Success beyond the recording studio

Shelby’s determination is not restricted to music.

She decided to run the Two Oceans Half Marathon with barely ten weeks to prepare  and finished it.

More importantly, she used the challenge to support Girls with Wiings, which provides sanitary products to women and children in underserved communities.

She has also volunteered in marine conservation in Zanzibar and is preparing to take part in the Imagine Challenge with I Love Boobies, supporting access to breast screening.

Her purpose, she says, is:

“To live a life that I can be proud of and share that with as many people as I can.”

There is also another unlikely source of inspiration: her horse Rainbow Lorikeet, the only filly to make the final field of the 2025 Durban July, whose journey inspired Shelby to begin horse riding herself.

Keep pitching up

Perhaps Cailyn Shelby’s story is still only in its early chapters. She certainly has bigger ambitions.

But looking back from 2026 to the young songwriter I first wrote about in 2021, there is already a valuable lesson here.

Hard work doesn’t always announce itself dramatically.

Sometimes it is attending another conference. Writing another song. Sending another email. Doing another interview. Meeting another producer. Going back to an unfinished track. Learning from people who have travelled the road before you. And then doing it again.

Cailyn has been coming to Music Exchange for five years. She has kept learning about the business as well as developing her craft. That willingness to pitch up matters.

Her own motto is wonderfully pragmatic: “You win some, you lose some.”

Perhaps that is exactly the attitude required for a sustainable career in music.

You cannot control every playlist, radio station, audience or opportunity. You can control whether you keep creating and whether you keep showing up.

Cailyn Shelby keeps showing up.

And with “Addicted To You,” she has delivered a confident, infectious pop track with a memorable hook that shows just how far the journey has already taken her.

I first wrote about her in 2021. I’m delighted to be writing about her again in 2026.

Keep going, Cai. The hard work is paying off.

Listen and follow Cailyn Shelby

Official website: https://www.cailynshelby.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cailynshelby

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cailyn_shelby/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cailynshelby16

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cailynshelby

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5PoEZZBQBeImvPHCu7RH7N

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/cailyn-shelby/1571431704