It’s no secret that Kaylee Bell is a huge fan of Keith Urban, who’s stage she shared on his 2014Light The Fuse and 2016 ripCORD World Tours. Kaylee now issues the ultimate tribute with her new single Keith, which releases today, along with the accompanying live-performance video taken from her new year's Top Paddock festival set.
The single is already making waves this morning, with a debut through Spotify's AU & NZ New Music Friday and Apple Music's Best of the Week playlists. Keith currently holds the top spot on the iTunes Hot Tracks list.
A rousing celebration of Urban’s music and career, whose trajectory to country music superstar status has been a source of inspiration for this fellow ‘small town’ NZ’er, Kaylee uses a collection of Urban’s song titles to inspire a simple relatable story of young love. Producer Lindsay Rimes (Kelsea Ballerini, Kylie Minogue) wraps the track in an upbeat, big-hearted, summertime feel.
Kaylee explains how the song came together; "Keith was a song that I had the idea for in my sleep, and still features some of the lyrics that I recorded into my phone that night. I sat on the idea for over a year as I hadn’t really settled on how to bring the song to life, but in Nashville last year, while recording with Lindsay, I took the idea to a writing session with he and Phil Barton (One More Shot). The song really wrote itself and was one of the best writing days I’ve had in Nashville.” While Keith draws a ton of inspiration from Urban’s recordings, the song is also an ode to the significance of music as it ties into our past. “Music connects us to moments and memories through our life,” Kaylee shares; “the song feels real to me as I connect a lot to it lyrically as it takes me back to being 16 and falling in love for the first time.”
Along with Kaylee’s all-time favourite Keith Urban song, Somebody Like You, 11 other song titles are subtly worked into the song’s narrative: Somewhere in Your Car, Long Hot Summer, Raise ‘Em Up, Days Go By, Wasted Time, Little Bit of Everything, Making Memories, We Were Us, Look Good in My Shirt, Once in a Lifetime Love and You'll Think of Me.
Keith’s release continues on from the success of single One More Shot, which has clocked up well over 1 million plays since its October 2018 debut, and it's inclusion within some of the world’s biggest country music playlists.
Highlights of Kaylee’s summer include performances at Lake Hawea’s Top Paddock Music Festival and a series of gigs in Australia including a slot at Tamworth’s Country Music Festival. Looking ahead, Kaylee represents Australasia as the only kiwi on the bill (alongside Keith Urban) and takes the stage at London’s O2 Arena as part of the huge C2C Festival on the 8th of March, before heading back to Nashville for a series of showcases with Radio Disney, Spotify and CMT. Kaylee then returns home to support Brandy Clarke, Devin Dawson and Lindsay Ell at Auckland’sIntroducing Nashville showcase at the Tuning Fork on 26 March. Kaylee Bell will release her long-awaited self-titled album in 2019.
Kaylee Bell’s Keith is out now through Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes.