Image: COURTESY
Singer and songwriter Amileena Mwenesi is one of the country's most beloved song birds or at least she used to be.
She first gained mainstream attention when she participated in the East African talent show Tusker project fame 4.
Amileena would begin her music career as soon as she left Tusker project fame, during the peak of her fame Amileena dropped hits like ‘Shine’, collaborated with Sudi Boy on the smash hit ‘Naona Bado’ and was even part of Kidis ‘Kamua Leo’ remix then all of a sudden she disappeared from the public eye, so what happened to Amileena and where is she?
Before we get into that let's start from the beginning. Amileena was born in 1988 but spent most of their time in South Africa where she attended high school and tertiary education.
The Shine hit maker majored in hospitality and operation management in college in an interview at the morning express show at KTN TV she stated
“It was important for my folks for me to have a background in terms of an educational and professional background so I went and did hospitality which I have an affinity for as well but I have a stronger affinity for music”
Her college years were filled with all jobs to support herself including being a waitress and a babysitter
“I did this while in college I needed to make that extra cash because as a girl there are a lot of things you need and pocket money you get from the parents is never enough”
Image: COURTESY
She graduated in 2009 and returned to Kenya, the ever smiling songstress would get a job at a hotel in Mombasa it was during this time when tusker project fame was doing auditions for their season 4, and she reluctantly entered the competition after learning about it from a co-worker
“I started TPF at 7 am, I think it was on a Saturday, my boy from work has been wanting me to sing, he’s loved my voice from day one, and I’ve always been too shy to step up myself and he phoned me and he was like I'm in a fix si you come wild waters, I get there and there’s a camera and am like a boss, what’s going on, it was like a one on one, I sing and he’s like we’ll see you tomorrow.”
Unfortunately, she came in 4th place, she was 22 years old at the time, but she didn't give up, from there she continued building her music career.
she collaborated with Collo on the hit song ‘Hodi’, and was also featured in Punit’s ‘Naskia poa’ apart from that she also dropped her successful singles from time to time.
Following the success of her singles and the projects she was featured in, Amileena went straight to the studio to complete her debut album, ‘Amileena’ at least in 2014, some of her favorite songs from the album were ‘Mawazo’ ‘Why’ and ‘Believe’
Amileena would then spend most of her time with Calvo Mistari, they recorded a lot of music together including ‘get down and Dance’, the song received a lot of negative reviews, because critics claimed it wasn’t her style.
Furthermore, fans started suspecting they are seeing each other, the rumors were further sealed by the song ‘Wewe ndiye’.
Image: COURTESY
However they both denied this in several interviews, “We are friends, we are very good friends’’ Calvo Mistari claimed in an interview with Kiss FM.
That was arguably the start of her downfall, Amileena’s music stopped trending and her personal life took center stage.
In every interview the two did, the relationship question was brought up. After years of denying their relationship, the pair confirmed they are dating in 2020.
It was also the last time we heard from Amileena, she has kept herself under the radar, recently she hasn’t been doing interviews or posting on social media, which raises the question of whether she is completely done with music.
Amileena’s career may not have panned out as expected or as we expected however there is no argument that she is one of the finest singers the country has ever produced, we can only hope that wherever she is, she is living her best life.
