Kayo started out as a singer in the 1980s with the Swedish synth-pop band
Freestyle. Kayo left the group following the release of the fourth single,
Vill ha dej. She then worked as a backup singer and dancer for various Swedish artists such as
The Creeps,
NASA, and
Anders Glenmark. She is a classically trained ballet dancer and performed professionally for many years. In 1990, she became part of the Nordic beat scene and released a self-titled, club-soul-influenced album on the
SweMix Label. The music was mostly
new jack swing, but some tracks incoporated
reggae,
house and
hip hop influences. It was produced by label co-founder
Stonebridge, with
Christian Falk and
Alexander Bard (from
Army of Lovers). She released four hit singles from the album. Her second album was a Swedish-language soul-pop album entitled
Kärleksland and featured songs by
Orup, and was well received on radio. After acting in a couple of teenage movies in the mid-1990s, she became one-half of
Le Click, which had several hit singles in North America and Germany during the 1990s. Later, she became part of the pop group
Afro-dite in the early 2000s, reaching the finals at
Melodifestivalen 2002 with the song "Never Let It Go" and representing Sweden in the
Eurovision Song Contest in
Tallinn the same year. In 2003,
Afro-dite competed once again at Melodifestivalen with the song "Aqua Playa". In 2006, Kayo performed at
Melodifestivalen as a solo artist but did not reach the finals. She has released several solo singles, such as "Another Mother" (No. 11 in Sweden) in 1991, and "(If It Makes You) Feel Good" in 2006. Kayo Shekoni has also hosted
Förkväll on
TV4 and
Fångarna på fortet ( the latter with cross-country skiing star
Gunde Svan). She worked for a while as a skin therapist not as a competitor, but as per of a medley of past winning songs with several previous winners. In 2010, she co-hosted a four-episode pan-Scandinavian TV-show show series
Inför Eurovision Song Contest 2010, analyzing all the competing songs submitted to that year's
Eurovision Song Contest. She also works as a DJ, co-runs a nightclub, and performs with the
disco and cocktail
jazz band
Cotton Club and
Afro-Dite. She returned to Melodifestivalen with Afro-Dite in 2012. She has been very active on theatre stages with
B.U.S., directed by
Josette Bushell-Mingo, "
Raisin in the Sun” with the National Theatre (and touring with the play in Sweden and
Finland, and taking the production to South Africa and the US), Norrbottens Teatern's production of
Cabaret, "
The Witches of Eastwick" (the latter with
West End star Peter Jöback), "
Taube Today" at Västmanlands Teater, and
Uppsala City Theatre. She has also performed at
Le Click reunion concerts. In 2023, Shekoni became part of the main jury panel, along with Swedish actor, performance artist, playwright, and drag queen
Robert Fux, and radio and television host Farao Groth, of the Swedish language reality television series
Drag Race Sverige, broadcast on
SVT1 and
SVT Play in Sweden and internationally on
WOW Presents Plus. ==Personal life==