Country star Kaylee Bell on being an independent artist and leaving New Zealand

From touring with Ed Sheeran to her impressive award wins last year, there is no denying Kaylee Bell is quickly becoming one of New Zealand’s most popular country music stars. She sits down with Herald Entertainment writer, Lillie Rohan, reflecting on the moment that she realised she needed to leave Aotearoa, her big plans for females in the country music industry and the importance of being self-managed.

Kaylee Bell has had over 14 million plays on Spotify, her hit song Keith over 30 million TikTok plays, but the Kiwi-born star confesses that despite her recent success, it’s taken a little while to get there.

“You always hear people work for 10 years and then things happen and you’re like, ‘oh yeah, it’ll never happen for me’, and then that’s kind of what it feels like,” she chuckles.

Bell’s realistic when it comes to her road to success.

She calls it “a long time of slog” and acknowledges that ultimately it all comes down to sacrifice – something she is no stranger to.

Having moved to Australia at the tender age of 21, swapping the comfort of her friends and family for a place completely unknown, the star says there was one major reason she decided to embark on the “scary” journey.

Kaylee Bell is one of New Zealand’s quickest-rising country music stars. Photo / Sarah Barlow

“We live in the most beautiful country in New Zealand, and I’m so grateful to have grown up here but I think it’s very isolating,” she says.

She adds with a bit of a giggle: “Once you start travelling you realise we just sort of popped off down here somewhere, where half of America doesn’t even know where it is, and I think you’ve really got to hustle, probably twice as hard as the rest of the world”.

The Boots ‘N All singer reflects light-heartedly on her move, despite admitting it was ”lonely”, and her levity just might be because it was a risk that paid off.

After winning the Toyota Star Maker award in 2013, introducing her to key industry figures, she went on to release the catalyst to her success in 2021 - The Red EP.

“The Red EP was sort of one of the ones out of the books,” she laughs knowingly.

That’s because Bell, determinedly chasing success, took the EP’s hit song Keith, her guitar and a whole lot of talent to The Voice Australia auditions in 2022.

Keith is inspired by the one and only Keith Urban, and the song’s namesake happened to be a host on The Voice.

Impressing all four judges, the Waimate-born singer was blocked from joining Urban’s team, but did join Jessica Mauboy’s team and quickly became a fan favourite.

Climbing the ranks both in the competition and on the Australian music charts, Keith landed the number one spot on the All Genre Australia charts, taking over the likes of Harry Styles and Luke Combs for an entire week.

Kaylee Bell. Photo / Sarah Barlow

And while Bell didn’t win the competition, success did come.

In 2023, the rising star won big at the ARIA awards, becoming the first female Australasian country artist to be accredited Gold for a single or EP in Australia in 20 years. She also became the first independent female country artist to claim the title.

“Getting an ARIA Gold record for that was pretty wild and it’s funny because that was largely due to a song, my song Keith,” she says.

Now dubbed one of NZ’s quickest-rising country music stars, Bell has recently relocated to Nashville where she’s starting to see some major traction in the US country music scene.

As well as winning a Jeff Walker Global Country Artist award at the Country Music Awards, Keith also hit number 12 on the Billboard Chart for digital sales last year.

“It’s been wild to see Keith get discovered over there,” she says of the now three-year-old hit adding: “It’s cool to have that song just keep living forever”.

It’s a comment Bell doesn’t make lightly, as a new version of the song has been created as part of her third studio album, Nights Like This, which was released on March 15.

It’s just one of many “really cool, fun” tracks Bell knows her fans will enjoy.

“I like to make people feel good and I do in my real life as well, I always feel like you should leave people better than you found them,” she says.

“I really think that’s a real thing that I like to live by and it’s the same with my music.”

Kaylee Bell performs at Coca-Cola's Christmas in the Park last year. Photo / Chontalle Musson

Despite Bell’s growing profile and recently released album, she remains self-managed - largely because she wants to do things how she wants, when she wants.

“I think it’s been a blessing in disguise that I haven’t been signed to a label,” she says, adding a major pro is that she can “connect directly” with her fans.

“They message me all the time and I can message them back and that’s really cool, I love that.”

It’s that authentic connection with her fans that keeps Bell grounded.

While she’s performed as the opening act for Ed Sheeran for his ‘Mathematics’ Stadium World Tour (playing six sold-out shows across NZ), and won multiple awards, she still can’t quite believe where that journey has taken her.

In the Kiwi summer just been, when she was effectively living out of a suitcase on a NZ-wide tour, she made a quick trip to Tamworth Australia for the Golden Guitar Awards – an event she and her family had been attending since she was 18 years old.

Confessing she went into the night with no expectations, Bell was surprised to discover she had been chosen as Female Artist of the Year.

“I was really stoked to be up for Female Artist,” she says.

“It was so cool to be recognised in Australia for that, then to win the female artist was just like a very nice way to end the night.”

Kaylee Bell after winning the Female Artist of the Year at the 2024 Golden Guitar Awards. Photo / Getty Images

Bell says that while it’s a big achievement for her, she also sees it as a win for all women in country music.

“I love getting to play country music and just, I guess starting to sort of show the next generation what that looks like,” she says.

“It blows my mind a little bit sometimes when I look at stats coming out of America with the lack of females on country radio and problems that I just feel like - how are we still having them?”

Bell is adamant she can help solve the problem.

“I love a challenge and I think that it’s something that I want to do in the next ... few years, is really push that and see if I can make some inroads as a female artist in America and on mainstream radio, that’s what I’m fighting to do at the moment.”

NZ, and more specifically Bell’s home town, are supportive of her mission, with a defining moment taking place on January 4 when Timaru hosted the annual Caroline Bay Carnival concert.

Drawing in thousands of punters - their biggest-ever crowd since Stan Walker’s 2015 performance - Bell was shocked at the large crowd.

“To sort of pack that place out was insane,” she humbly confesses.

“I went to school in Timaru and have been going to the Bay for years and very, very few artists get to have that kind of audience.

“It feels like a big warm hug around me and validation of, we’re on the right path.”

Kaylee Bell’s new album, Nights Like These is available now. Tickets to her New Zealand tour are available here.

Lillie Rohan is an Auckland-based reporter covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2020. She specialises in all things relationships and dating, Kiwi celebs we can’t help but love and TV shows you simply cannot miss out on.