The name Auriol Hays conjures up someone exotic and her powerful voice further strengthens the picture of this golden-skinned beauty.

Born and bred in the Mother city, she’s only been in the professional music arena for just more than a year, but the songstress already has radio hits with Take it Slow and Turn up the Volume from the album Behind Closed Doors.

Hays has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, opened with the Gauteng Big Band for the 2010 Standard Bank Joy of Jazz and sang at last year’s Zoo Lake Music Festival.

“I always knew singing was something I wanted to do, it was an obsessive thought, but I didn’t have that support saying: ‘You can do this,’ “ said Hays in an interview.

It took the birth of her daughter 12 years ago to make her step into the industry. “When I had my daughter, having time on my hands, being a housewife, that made me realise I have to wake up and do something,” said Hays.

“I didn’t study music; I only got vocal training from Tina Schouw for a few months, but other than that I have no training.”

Hays says she grew up listening to everything but jazz and dubs herself as a plaasjaapie (a naive person from the country) who always kept to herself.

“In Cape Town all the musicians know each other, I never really bothered myself with anyone and didn’t go out to see people perform. What I am struggling with is having industry support.”

But despite this, she managed to bag her first Sama nomination this year, along with a debut performance with Tumi and the Volume and Marcus Wyatt.

“I was completely overwhelmed. Every now and then these moments come along that threaten to swallow you whole. Montreux, The Joy of Jazz and the Samas are perfect examples. They seem almost too big and too good to be true and at my core, I wondered if I could rise to the occasion.

“Every human being on the planet has experienced that feeling. We are scared of making mistakes and we question our worth”

How she juggles marriage and motherhood with this rising success is anyone’s guess. “It’s hard; one constantly has to negotiate and find a balance,” said Hays.

She will perform on the main programme at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown next month.

“I’m excited about the material I’m going to perform because I’m using Capetonian musicians – Fabian Baartman, Andre Webb, Keith De Bruyn. They are amazing and so talented, especially how they interpret my album. The band has jazz influences. I will be using a mix of my first album and the coming one and doing some jazz classics.

“I’m a songwriter, I love writing ‘epic’ songs. So if you give me a beat I’m going to write to it.”

Hays’s coming house album with DJ Rowick is set to drop later this year.

lHays will perform at the Great Hall, July 8 at 7pm at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.