Artist of the Week: Kirsty Lee Akers

CountryTown in partnership with iHeartCountry Australia is proud to announce singer-songwriter, Kirsty Lee Akers as our Artist Of The Week, following the release of her new single, For Love.

Proud of her Indigenous heritage as a woman of the Wonnarua people (Hunter Valley), Akers was born in the small town of Kurri Kurri, NSW. She first performed in public at three-years-old and recorded her first EP at 16. After graduating from the CMAA Academy of Country Music (2004 and 2005), Akers is the only artist in history to have won three of the major prizes in Australian country music – Telstra Road To Discover (2006), Toyota Star Maker (2007) and a Golden Guitar Award (2008).

She had success with her albums Little Things (2007), Better Days (2009), Naked (2011) and Burn Baby Burn (2016), and, in 2018, she released her fifth album, Under My Skin – her most successful album to date. The album, which saw her in the producer’s seat for the first time, landed at #3 on the iTunes Country and ARIA Australian Country Albums chart upon release (as well as #5 ARIA Country Album, #8 ARIA Australian Album, and #29 all-genre ARIA Albums chart).

Earlier this year, Akers took home her second Golden Guitar Award for her ‘Vocal Collaboration of the Year’ rendition of John Williamson’s True Blue with Amber Lawrence, Aleyce Simmonds and Dianna Corcoran. She also formed her own record label, Rider Records and is currently competing on season 17: Fans v Faves of the Logie award-winning renovation reality series, The Block with husband Jesse.

Her new single, For Love was written in lockdown with Phil Barton and Bruce Wallace, and co-produced by Akers with Paul Bain, Issac Kennedy, and Dan Ebbels at the new Five Town Productions studios in Brisbane. Even though Jesse was the inspiration, the upbeat song tells a story of love in general, and all the things you would do for that “special” person.

Akers says, “I know Jesse would give his life for me, and I would do the same, I hope this song tells the story of loving someone so much that you couldn’t imagine living life without them.”

She adds, “I never want to do the same thing twice in music. I think this track is something my audience hasn’t heard from me before. We really experimented with different sounds and creating something new but also had a bit of nostalgia to it. It’s still me, just an evolution of my sound.”

Keep up to date with Kirsty Lee Akers on her Facebook page here.

For more Artist Of The Week features, including Kirsty Lee Akers, check out here.

Image: Supplied