There must have been a period during the Covid-19 lockdowns when singer Kaylee Bell wondered if her career had reached its peak. Unable to perform, Bell worked as a kindergarten teacher to make ends meet.
Then came the phone call. It was an invitation from the producers of The Voice Australia to audition for the show. Bell flew out of Auckland knowing her chances of being able to return home were slim, with border restrictions in place.
She said she was initially going to perform her song Landslide, but before the audition, producers asked if she could sing Keith — her ode to Kiwi-born country singing star Keith Urban, one of the show's judges.
"That day is still one of the most surreal days of my life," Bell recalled.
"We didn't film until about midnight that night, so it was a long day sitting around. It was actually terrifying, singing a song that you wrote to the person you wrote it for."
The resulting clip of her rendition and Urban's amazed response went viral, clocking up millions of views and garnering global attention for the Waimate-born singer. She also earned the title of Most Streamed Female Country Artist for Australasia.
'One song can change your life'
The song has had more than 60 million TikTok plays and more than 20 million Spotify plays. It hit the US Billboard Charts at number 12 on Country Digital Sales and spent five weeks at the number 1 spot on the Australia Country Radio Official chart.
"Like everyone says, one song can change your life, and I've started to see that with Keith," Bell told Seven Sharp when they filmed with her at Waimate's Regent Theatre.
It's the theatre where Bell first performed on stage at the age of four, alongside her siblings in a cardboard bath singing Splish, Splash in the variety section of the Waimate Country Music Awards.
Growing up in a small town in New Zealand, Bell said she had few New Zealand country singers to adulate. That's not the case in 2024 for Bell's legion of fans, many of whom are youngsters who don cowboy hats and boots and line up after the show to meet and greet their idol.
According to the 34-year-old, "Country music is absolutely popping off, and I think it's like everything that comes back round in cycles, and it's just being patient and waiting for that time again."
Bell is transitioning into the headline act after supporting big names like Ed Sheeran on tour.
When her current Nights Like This nationwide tour ends, the self-managed, independent artist will jet with her band to Australia for shows in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. The tour will culminate in the iconic CMA Festival in Nashville, USA, where Bell now lives for part of the year.
"Everyone says it takes 10 years to become an overnight success, and I'm about to hit 14 or 15 years of slog, and I think I'm glad it's happened this way."
As Bell wrote in her lyrics, she's now ready for "good things to come my way."
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