VIDEO PREMIERE: Katie Jayne - 'He Had Me At Hello'

Rising Australian country singer Katie Jayne is celebrating Valentine’s Day by releasing her new single, He Had Me At Hello. Today, Countrytown exclusively unveils the video premiere of the song.

Singing from the Moonshiners Honky Tonk stage in Tamworth, Jayne connects with a cowboy across the room and displays an irresistible, magnetic connection.

Jeremy Minnet from Eyes And Ears Creative shot a high-energy video that hints at the song’s cheeky subject matter, stage lights shining on Jayne as she performs on stage.

Jayne wrote the song along with Luke Austen, while Jared Adlam produced and played electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, banjo and organ, with Reece Baines on drums.

He Had Me At Hello is about finding love in a bar—or is it lust? Jayne commented, “I was inspired to take this track into the studio after an encounter at the Deni Ute Muster where I invited a handsome cowboy onto my stage for a shirt swap. He had caught my eye from across the crowd, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Ah, I probably shouldn’t do that.’”

While the music video is fun, it also highlights Jayne’s ongoing fight for gender equality. “We introduced the shirt swaps as a bit of fun on stage while I sneakily advertised my merchandise. It quickly turned into something more, though, when we started going viral and attracted a lot of negative attention,” she explained.

Jayne continued, “It made my blood boil that these trolls were totally okay with the men being completely topless, but when I was in a bra or a crop top, it was seen as something bad. We’ve sexualised women’s bodies so much that I can be wearing MORE than the man but treated as less worthy.

“This has made me want to do it more and normalise women being comfortable in their own skin. We also get a lot of women wanting to do the shirt swap, and I absolutely love giving them a platform to feel empowered!”

You can check out the music video below.