For Leyla Sabo, the disappointment of missing The Voice Australia Grand Finale is still fresh.

She has admitted she was hurt after working so hard to reach the final stage of the competition, but the young singer is already looking beyond the result that left so many viewers disappointed.

Because while Leyla’s time on The Voice may be over, there is another part of her musical story that has barely been heard.

And she says there is a lot of it.

“I really wanted to make the Grand Finale”

Leyla spoke openly about her elimination after Ronan Keating chose The 60Four as Team Ronan’s finalist.

“Of course I was disappointed,” she told WHO. “I worked so hard to be there.”

She had genuinely hoped to make the Grand Finale, but said she was also incredibly proud of how far she had come.

That balance between disappointment and pride has been a defining part of Leyla’s response since leaving the competition.

She did not get the ending she wanted.

But she appears determined not to let that become the end of her story.

Then Leyla revealed what has been waiting behind the scenes

The most intriguing part of her response came when she began talking about what happens next.

Leyla revealed that she has more than 40 original songs that she wants to take into the studio and bring to life.

It is a striking detail because viewers have mostly known her through the songs she performed on The Voice.

Now, there is a much larger body of music that audiences have not yet heard.

Leyla says songwriting is a huge part of who she is as an artist and that she is excited to release new music and show people another side of herself.

For a contestant whose television journey ended one step before the Grand Finale, it is an unexpected reminder that there is a whole musical identity waiting beyond the show.

The next chapter could sound very different

The songs Leyla is talking about could give audiences something they did not necessarily get to see during her time on The Voice.

Television introduced viewers to her voice.

Her own songwriting could reveal the person behind it.

That distinction matters to Leyla.

She has previously spoken about wanting a career where people genuinely connect with her music emotionally, rather than simply recognising her as a television contestant.

She also told New Idea that she wants to continue writing her own songs and one day perform around the world, with audiences singing her own music back to her.

Her music story began years before the red chairs

Long before she appeared in front of Ronan Keating, Melanie C, Richard Marx and Kate Miller-Heidke, Leyla had already been performing.

She began performing publicly when she was around eight or nine, and by the time she auditioned for The Voice, she already had years of experience behind her.

At just 10, she released her first original song, “Hard To Breathe”, inspired by the death of the family dog.

Leyla recalled that she was deeply upset by the loss, began writing lyrics and eventually turned those feelings into a song.

It was an early sign that songwriting would become an important part of her artistic identity.

She had already stood in front of thousands

Her confidence on the Voice stage also did not appear overnight.

Before the show, Leyla had already performed to some remarkably large crowds.

At 11, she sang at John Cain Arena in front of around 10,000 people, with Dannii Minogue among those watching.

She later performed for roughly 20,000 people at Manningham Carols by Candlelight.

Leyla told New Idea that because she had already performed on major stages, she did not find performing in front of a large audience particularly frightening.

The television cameras may have reached millions more people.

But the confidence had been built long before they arrived.

The Voice changed the scale of her story

That is what makes Leyla’s current position so interesting.

The show was undoubtedly a major turning point.

She reached the Semi Finals, became one of the season’s fan favourites and, according to her own account, made The Voice history as the youngest artist to reach the Semi Finals of a flagship adult edition of the franchise.

She has said that achievement was difficult for her to believe when she looked back at the little girl who first began singing simply because she loved it.

But the competition did not create that ambition.

It gave it a much bigger audience.

The support after her elimination has stayed with her

Leyla has also opened up about what happened after viewers watched her leave the competition.

She said messages from people she had never met made her cry because they told her that her performances had meant something to them.

That support has given her more confidence, but she says it has also strengthened her desire to keep working and proving herself as an artist.

In some ways, that may be the most lasting thing The Voice gave her.

Not simply a place in a competition.

An audience that is now waiting to hear what she creates next.

And there is more that Leyla is not talking about yet

The 40-plus songs are not the only thing she has hinted at.

Leyla also told WHO that she has live shows and “more exciting announcements” coming, although she is keeping those details under wraps for now.

That leaves an intriguing gap between what fans know and what Leyla is preparing behind the scenes.

The television chapter has closed.

But several other pieces appear to already be moving.

The Voice was never supposed to be the finish line

Looking back, Leyla’s elimination now feels less like a full stop and more like a change of direction.

She wanted the Grand Final.

She did not get there.

But she leaves the competition with a growing audience, years of experience, a passion for songwriting and more than 40 original songs she wants to bring into the world.

And perhaps that is the detail that changes the way her Voice story should be remembered.

Australia may have discovered Leyla Sabo through a television competition.

But the young singer who walked off that stage already had another story waiting.

And this time, she gets to decide what it sounds like.