Kaylee BellOn the eve of releasing my new double single - Me For Me and Once In A Lifetime - I've been doing a lot of reflecting. There's a moment - usually somewhere over the Pacific, James asleep in my arms and the hum of the plane around us - where I catch myself thinking: how is this my life?
The past 12 months have been a whirlwind. Touring, travelling, writing, recording - and doing all of it now as a mum. My little boy James just turned one and having him out on the road with us has added a whole new layer of meaning to everything I do. It's beautiful, honestly. Some people might wonder how you combine all of that - the grind of a music career with being a mother - but for me it just works. It adds so much meaning and joy. I feel incredibly lucky.
I've been building toward this moment for a long time. The journey has been a grind in the best possible way - years of touring, connecting with fans, showing up night after night and trusting that the work would speak for itself. And slowly, step by step, it has.
A Jelly Roll Moment
One of the most surreal moments of the past year happened completely organically - the way the best things in music always do.
We were playing a show in Australia and Jelly Roll heard me singing my song Keith side stage. He's a fan of the track, and when he heard it live, he ran over to listen. He actually texted Keith Urban - the real Keith, who the song is about - to tell him he was standing side stage watching. That detail still gets me.
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Then he invited me up to sing with him that night. And then again at Newcastle. And again in Perth. Moments like that don't come along very often, and when they do you have to just stop and breathe them in. He's a great human who genuinely cares about other artists - and that meant more to me than the moment itself, if that makes sense.
Coming Home
Opening a brand-new stadium in the region I grew up in, to a sold-out crowd of 37,000 people, was something I still struggle to put into words.
I felt a lot of emotion knowing how much family was in that crowd - friends I grew up with, people who have been on this journey with me from the very beginning. It was one of those moments where you feel so grateful for where you are in life, but also deeply reminded of the sacrifices it has taken to get there. Both things at once.
It also meant so much to fly the flag for country music on a bill like that - amongst the mainstream. Country is a genre I have always been proud to be part of, and I love how much success it's having in mainstream culture right now. I could never have imagined it would be so normal to hear country music on radio, to know that it's not only accepted but now celebrated. That is really rewarding to be part of.
I wanted something to mark the night - something that would outlive it. So I wrote the song Once In A Lifetime and we shot a music video at the stadium that same night. I know how special that moment was, and I know how much it means to have a home like that back in Christchurch for sport and for music. The song and the video together are a time capsule - a moment in time we can hold onto forever. It's releasing this Friday alongside my new single Me For Me - which I wrote with Navvy and Josh Naley and shot out in Queensland with the Cowgirls Australia girls. Two very different songs, two very different worlds - but together they feel like two sides of the same chapter.
Five Nominations and a Moment with The Wiggles
This year's Aotearoa Music Awards are extra special - I've received five nominations, which is the most I've ever had. Album of the year, best country artist, the Mana Reo category for Matariki Hunga Nui alongside Rob Ruha and Troy Kingi, the People's Choice award and I’m also up for the Radio Airplay award.
Award shows matter to me. They're a chance for the industry to come together, celebrate each other, and reflect on what we've all created over the past 12 months. It's easy to get so caught up in the momentum of touring and releasing music that you forget to stop and honour the work. Award shows make you do that.
Last year was a big one on that front too. I got to present at the ARIAs alongside The Wiggles - and honestly, how good is that sentence? What made it extra special was that I was actually part of the album they were nominated for, so to be there celebrating that together felt really full circle. I love celebrating Australian music and what artists have achieved, and The Wiggles are just so universally loved - it was a genuine honour.
Nashville, CMA Fest, and Becoming a Global Artist
I've been going to CMA Fest since 2010 - 16 years now - and Nashville still gives me a feeling I can't quite replicate anywhere else. It's a city that has such deep, genuine respect for music and for songwriters. Every time I go, I come back inspired and full.
This year I'm heading back to perform, and I'm also incredibly honoured to have a talking spot on the CMA Close Up Stage hosted by Apple Music Country's Ty Bentli. The conversation - Borders: Making Nashville Home - brings together artists from around the world who risked everything by moving to Music City in pursuit of their dream. I'm the first Australian female artist to be featured in this way, which is not something I take lightly.
It speaks to something I've been quietly working toward for a long time: becoming a truly global country artist. I'm based across three continents - New Zealand, Australia, and America - and this year we started tapping into the UK and Europe as well, which felt like a really significant step. New markets, new audiences, new possibilities. I've always wanted this music to travel. And with two new songs out in the world this Friday - one born from a stadium full of people I love, one shot on red dirt with a group of incredible women - I feel like we are genuinely, finally, underway to making that happen.
