The Sit Down with Alexandra Kay
Named to Pandora’s “Artist to Watch: Country” list, Alexandra Kay is currently in the UK on her 6 date headline tour – with 3 shows sold out. Having signed with BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville in February, Alexandra has just released her second single with the label – The Last. We sat down with Alexandra this week to find out more.
Hey Alexandra – it’s awesome to see you again – thanks for taking the time.
My pleasure, it’s good to see you again.
Last time we spoke was just before your set at Hyde Park last July – that was my first time actually getting to see you play live, and you crushed it - how does it feel to be back in the UK?
It feels so good to be back – we’ve been excited to get back over. The reaction from the crowds has been wild. We’ve done all the shows in Europe and now Dublin and Belfast, and it’s been a real step up from even the last time to now, which is wild!
Speaking of wild – I saw some clips of the Dublin show and damn, they really showed up for you!
They did! Belfast were amazing too – I need to upload some of that. It was our first time there and they were so excited and they were singing so loud. The crowds back home are great too, but these shows – they were arms up, singing every word so loud. It was awesome!
The Irish fans always show up, and they know how to party – the English fans are gonna have to step up.
They are, and they will. I’m excited. We’re still in Belfast and we’re playing Birmingham tomorrow.
I have tickets for next week; I’m excited for it.
Yes! That’s awesome.
It feels like you’ve done a hell of a lot in not even a full year; last time you were just gearing up to release ‘Leave the Light On’ with Jelly Roll for the Twisters soundtrack, then you opened for Jelly Roll on his tour, you’ve signed a record deal, played a bunch of shows on your headline tour and now you’re back on a pretty big international run of dates – how does it feel for you? Is it all just a whirlwind?
It’s been incredible, and I’m so grateful for all of these opportunities and for my fans who keep showing up for me because without them, I would never have got here. So I just need to be grateful; every single day I open my eyes, I’m just so thankful for where I'm at.
Hey Alexandra – it’s awesome to see you again – thanks for taking the time.
My pleasure, it’s good to see you again.
Last time we spoke was just before your set at Hyde Park last July – that was my first time actually getting to see you play live, and you crushed it - how does it feel to be back in the UK?
It feels so good to be back – we’ve been excited to get back over. The reaction from the crowds has been wild. We’ve done all the shows in Europe and now Dublin and Belfast, and it’s been a real step up from even the last time to now, which is wild!
Speaking of wild – I saw some clips of the Dublin show and damn, they really showed up for you!
They did! Belfast were amazing too – I need to upload some of that. It was our first time there and they were so excited and they were singing so loud. The crowds back home are great too, but these shows – they were arms up, singing every word so loud. It was awesome!
The Irish fans always show up, and they know how to party – the English fans are gonna have to step up.
They are, and they will. I’m excited. We’re still in Belfast and we’re playing Birmingham tomorrow.
I have tickets for next week; I’m excited for it.
Yes! That’s awesome.
It feels like you’ve done a hell of a lot in not even a full year; last time you were just gearing up to release ‘Leave the Light On’ with Jelly Roll for the Twisters soundtrack, then you opened for Jelly Roll on his tour, you’ve signed a record deal, played a bunch of shows on your headline tour and now you’re back on a pretty big international run of dates – how does it feel for you? Is it all just a whirlwind?
It’s been incredible, and I’m so grateful for all of these opportunities and for my fans who keep showing up for me because without them, I would never have got here. So I just need to be grateful; every single day I open my eyes, I’m just so thankful for where I'm at.
Does it ever sink in? I mean, you've done so much in just the last year. Do you ever get those moments where you do just get to process it all?
Yeah, I process it every night on stage where I just, like, take a minute and stop and look around and be like, remember this, you know? Because it can just be very, very quick. I did that a lot when I was on tour with Jelly Roll as well, because arenas are a whole different beast. So I definitely take that time. I do it at the Grand Ole Opry every time I play as well, because it's such an honour. And you have to do that, you know? You have to do that because you'll just blink and years will go by and you're like, what happened?
Speaking of Jelly Roll; when you went out with him and sang ‘Save Me’ together with that whole rain setup, that had to be one of those moments - it looked so cool.
Oh my God, my boyfriend was bawling his eyes out. Rocco was in front of the stage. And I looked over and he was just like bawling and I was like, oh my god, I cannot look at you right now or I'm gonna start crying. We were all, everybody was so proud. And it was just really cool.
It was cool! You’ve also just played Stagecoach again, which looked amazing, and then you’ve jumped straight into the international leg of this tour, which is like, 20 dates, something like, by the time you wrap, right?
Yeah, yeah, it's a little over 20. And prior to that, we had done six weeks. So we did a six-week tour, then we came back and had two weeks home. But I wasn't “home” like I was flying around all over the place and making my record and doing all this stuff. So I had two weeks at home and then went and did Live in the Vineyard, Stagecoach, and another festival. Came home, had a day and a half at home, and then left for another four weeks.
Do you ever sleep?
No! Yes, I do. I do, I'm just kidding. I prioritize sleep. So I am like, I don't care what is going on, I don't care - I'm going to bed because I have to sleep when I have the opportunity, because there's not a lot of opportunity. Like with Stagecoach, we went there early, and everybody went to watch, like, day two, all throughout the day and stuff. And I was like, I can't, I have to perform tomorrow. Like, I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to that.
Yeah, I mean you have to be when you're playing so many shows pretty much back-to-back like you have been.
I just literally wouldn't have a voice.
And that would really suck!
Yeah, that would suck. I've done that before. It's horrible.
And if you weren't already busy enough, you're also releasing a new single tomorrow.
Yes, so I'll be live tonight at midnight. I will be going live from a ferry because we have to take a ferry back to Birmingham. It's confusing, because Belfast is the UK, but it's in Ireland, right?
Yeah.
Right, yeah. I'm just always afraid - I don't want to like - you know, offend anybody and say it wrong. So, we're going back over to Birmingham; we get on the ferry at 10 o'clock tonight. We're on there till two o'clock in the morning, just sitting, so I'll be live.
I had the opportunity to listen to the studio version of ‘The Last’ ahead of its release tomorrow. Can you speak a little bit about the song and how it came about?
When Rocco and I first started dating, one thing that really stuck out to me, and was always just kind of in the back of my brain, was I just didn't want any life experiences to be tarnished because I had experienced a lot of life prior to him, you know, I've been married, I've been divorced, I've lived a lot of life, and I just never wanted him to look at it like anything was, you know, tarnished or not as special. And so that was really the conversation we were having in the writer’s room when we decided to write the song. And basically, we decided the sentiment of the song is just that, you know, it doesn't matter: everything that happened prior to you is a different life. You know, life starts now with you. And I might have had a lot of firsts in my life, but I want you to be the last. And that's really all that matters. And so it's just kind of a love letter to Rocco, and I write all my love songs with him in mind.
And it must be extra special because you get to perform it, and he's up there with you?
Yeah. And the crowd loves it. They love to see the interaction between the two of us and we sing it together, and he's got a guitar solo. And they just, they really love to support him as well, because they know how much I love him and it's really cool, you know, I was just telling somebody this in another interview, but in ‘Painted Him Perfect,’ when I say I sing his praises on every stage and he just had to mention he hates the attention, right? So I went from a relationship with somebody who didn't like me loving them so loudly. And now, Rocco is right there next to me, loving me just as loud and proud. And it's just a really cool moment.
Yeah, I process it every night on stage where I just, like, take a minute and stop and look around and be like, remember this, you know? Because it can just be very, very quick. I did that a lot when I was on tour with Jelly Roll as well, because arenas are a whole different beast. So I definitely take that time. I do it at the Grand Ole Opry every time I play as well, because it's such an honour. And you have to do that, you know? You have to do that because you'll just blink and years will go by and you're like, what happened?
Speaking of Jelly Roll; when you went out with him and sang ‘Save Me’ together with that whole rain setup, that had to be one of those moments - it looked so cool.
Oh my God, my boyfriend was bawling his eyes out. Rocco was in front of the stage. And I looked over and he was just like bawling and I was like, oh my god, I cannot look at you right now or I'm gonna start crying. We were all, everybody was so proud. And it was just really cool.
It was cool! You’ve also just played Stagecoach again, which looked amazing, and then you’ve jumped straight into the international leg of this tour, which is like, 20 dates, something like, by the time you wrap, right?
Yeah, yeah, it's a little over 20. And prior to that, we had done six weeks. So we did a six-week tour, then we came back and had two weeks home. But I wasn't “home” like I was flying around all over the place and making my record and doing all this stuff. So I had two weeks at home and then went and did Live in the Vineyard, Stagecoach, and another festival. Came home, had a day and a half at home, and then left for another four weeks.
Do you ever sleep?
No! Yes, I do. I do, I'm just kidding. I prioritize sleep. So I am like, I don't care what is going on, I don't care - I'm going to bed because I have to sleep when I have the opportunity, because there's not a lot of opportunity. Like with Stagecoach, we went there early, and everybody went to watch, like, day two, all throughout the day and stuff. And I was like, I can't, I have to perform tomorrow. Like, I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to that.
Yeah, I mean you have to be when you're playing so many shows pretty much back-to-back like you have been.
I just literally wouldn't have a voice.
And that would really suck!
Yeah, that would suck. I've done that before. It's horrible.
And if you weren't already busy enough, you're also releasing a new single tomorrow.
Yes, so I'll be live tonight at midnight. I will be going live from a ferry because we have to take a ferry back to Birmingham. It's confusing, because Belfast is the UK, but it's in Ireland, right?
Yeah.
Right, yeah. I'm just always afraid - I don't want to like - you know, offend anybody and say it wrong. So, we're going back over to Birmingham; we get on the ferry at 10 o'clock tonight. We're on there till two o'clock in the morning, just sitting, so I'll be live.
I had the opportunity to listen to the studio version of ‘The Last’ ahead of its release tomorrow. Can you speak a little bit about the song and how it came about?
When Rocco and I first started dating, one thing that really stuck out to me, and was always just kind of in the back of my brain, was I just didn't want any life experiences to be tarnished because I had experienced a lot of life prior to him, you know, I've been married, I've been divorced, I've lived a lot of life, and I just never wanted him to look at it like anything was, you know, tarnished or not as special. And so that was really the conversation we were having in the writer’s room when we decided to write the song. And basically, we decided the sentiment of the song is just that, you know, it doesn't matter: everything that happened prior to you is a different life. You know, life starts now with you. And I might have had a lot of firsts in my life, but I want you to be the last. And that's really all that matters. And so it's just kind of a love letter to Rocco, and I write all my love songs with him in mind.
And it must be extra special because you get to perform it, and he's up there with you?
Yeah. And the crowd loves it. They love to see the interaction between the two of us and we sing it together, and he's got a guitar solo. And they just, they really love to support him as well, because they know how much I love him and it's really cool, you know, I was just telling somebody this in another interview, but in ‘Painted Him Perfect,’ when I say I sing his praises on every stage and he just had to mention he hates the attention, right? So I went from a relationship with somebody who didn't like me loving them so loudly. And now, Rocco is right there next to me, loving me just as loud and proud. And it's just a really cool moment.
It's really awesome to see that. I've seen that you've added it into your live set for some of these latest shows, what has the response been from your fans?
Oh, they love it, and they're singing it already, you know, which is really cool – they already know the words because of social media. So that's really awesome.
When I first heard it, it felt like the healed, hopeful, continuation to ‘Everleave,’ like, it's a narrator that's, you know, walked away from something that wasn't serving them and now found something that is, and there’s something really beautiful in that. How does it feel for you now, when you play songs like ‘Everleave,’ which was such a big song for you, but about a really difficult time in your life, but now you're coming at it from a perspective where you've moved past it and you're on to better. Is it a weird thing to have to perform?
No, not at all. Not at all, because at that point, you know when you're not actually going through that moment anymore, the sadness just kind of turns to a triumphant feeling of sorts. You know, I'm standing there strong, and I'm singing these words to these women who might be broken or might be fragile, or might be going through whatever it is that they’re going through. And I'm sitting here singing these words directly into their eyes with gusto and I'm just like in strength, and I am just like - look at me - like I have made it through this, and so will you. And so no, it's a very empowering moment to sing ‘Everleave,’ to sing ‘I Can Do Anything,’ to sing some of the status songs, some of the hardest songs to sing when I was actually going through my divorce and my heart was actually broken, but now that I can do it healed, it's extremely empowering. I'm really happy to do it.
And you really do see that connection you have with your fans. I mean, for you to write about something so deeply personal like that and it's kind of like therapy for you, and then to be through it, but to be helping other people who are maybe, like you say, currently going through it, and have them scream every word back at you like they do and share that empowering kind of moment, it must be just really surreal?
Yeah, it's, you know, just kind of like there's a little nod from God that everything happens for a reason, and that I'm right where I'm supposed to be. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm healed, and I'm able to share my experiences through this beautiful gift that He's given me, and I hope I do it for the rest of my life.
When you wrap this tour leg, you're heading home to Nashville and you go straight into CMA Fest. They say CMA is the absolute pinnacle of country music events, how does it feel to be an artist gearing up for that?
It's exhausting, because everybody always says no artist sleeps during CMA Fest week, because everybody's in town. And you know, you might have like one show in Nashville on a normal weekend; CMA Fest, you have like eight shows in like three days, and then you have events all in between, and breakfasts and lunches and meetings, and you know what I mean? So it's just like one of the most tiring weeks of the year, but it's also so much fun. You get to meet fans from all over the world. So it's like, you know, yes, I'm here in Belfast, and we played Dublin, and I got to meet all my Irish fans, and fans from the UK here. But it's like in Nashville during CMA Fest week, it’s a mix of people from out of the country, out of the state. And I get to also bounce around, and I get to see some of my favourite acts play. I get to see my friends play shows, which is really hard to do because we're always all on the road, and it's a really great week for artists to connect. So I love it. I love being a part of it, and I'm really grateful to get asked to do it again.
Oh, they love it, and they're singing it already, you know, which is really cool – they already know the words because of social media. So that's really awesome.
When I first heard it, it felt like the healed, hopeful, continuation to ‘Everleave,’ like, it's a narrator that's, you know, walked away from something that wasn't serving them and now found something that is, and there’s something really beautiful in that. How does it feel for you now, when you play songs like ‘Everleave,’ which was such a big song for you, but about a really difficult time in your life, but now you're coming at it from a perspective where you've moved past it and you're on to better. Is it a weird thing to have to perform?
No, not at all. Not at all, because at that point, you know when you're not actually going through that moment anymore, the sadness just kind of turns to a triumphant feeling of sorts. You know, I'm standing there strong, and I'm singing these words to these women who might be broken or might be fragile, or might be going through whatever it is that they’re going through. And I'm sitting here singing these words directly into their eyes with gusto and I'm just like in strength, and I am just like - look at me - like I have made it through this, and so will you. And so no, it's a very empowering moment to sing ‘Everleave,’ to sing ‘I Can Do Anything,’ to sing some of the status songs, some of the hardest songs to sing when I was actually going through my divorce and my heart was actually broken, but now that I can do it healed, it's extremely empowering. I'm really happy to do it.
And you really do see that connection you have with your fans. I mean, for you to write about something so deeply personal like that and it's kind of like therapy for you, and then to be through it, but to be helping other people who are maybe, like you say, currently going through it, and have them scream every word back at you like they do and share that empowering kind of moment, it must be just really surreal?
Yeah, it's, you know, just kind of like there's a little nod from God that everything happens for a reason, and that I'm right where I'm supposed to be. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm healed, and I'm able to share my experiences through this beautiful gift that He's given me, and I hope I do it for the rest of my life.
When you wrap this tour leg, you're heading home to Nashville and you go straight into CMA Fest. They say CMA is the absolute pinnacle of country music events, how does it feel to be an artist gearing up for that?
It's exhausting, because everybody always says no artist sleeps during CMA Fest week, because everybody's in town. And you know, you might have like one show in Nashville on a normal weekend; CMA Fest, you have like eight shows in like three days, and then you have events all in between, and breakfasts and lunches and meetings, and you know what I mean? So it's just like one of the most tiring weeks of the year, but it's also so much fun. You get to meet fans from all over the world. So it's like, you know, yes, I'm here in Belfast, and we played Dublin, and I got to meet all my Irish fans, and fans from the UK here. But it's like in Nashville during CMA Fest week, it’s a mix of people from out of the country, out of the state. And I get to also bounce around, and I get to see some of my favourite acts play. I get to see my friends play shows, which is really hard to do because we're always all on the road, and it's a really great week for artists to connect. So I love it. I love being a part of it, and I'm really grateful to get asked to do it again.
You’re playing the ‘Next Women of Country’ show at the Country Music Hall of Fame as part of it; and that looks like it's gonna be pretty cool.
It's gonna be so fun. It's gonna be so fun. That was a really big honour for me to get named as one of the ‘Next Women of Country,’ I've wanted that title for a really long time, and I've been going for it for a while. So I was so, so excited when I found out that I got to be a part of that class and really honoured to be, you know, alongside Megan and Dasha and it's just, it's awesome.
And well deserved. And I know I'm coming to the end of my time - I'm gonna wrap it up - I just gotta ask you real quick; you've teased that a new album’s coming. You did some recording for it around Christmas, is that something fans are gonna be able to get their hands on this year?
Yes, by the end of the year, they will have a new record, and I can't wait for them to hear it. It's fun and it's flirty and it's pink and it's light-hearted, and I'm very, very proud of it.
Awesome. Well, we're all here for it. You just made a load of fans real happy when this gets published. Alexandra, thank you again for taking the time. I've really enjoyed getting to chat with you again.
Of course, anytime. I will see you next week.
See you next week. Have fun. She travels over to Birmingham.
Be sure to follow Alexandra at all the usual places and listen to The Last NOW
Website | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | X | Facebook
It's gonna be so fun. It's gonna be so fun. That was a really big honour for me to get named as one of the ‘Next Women of Country,’ I've wanted that title for a really long time, and I've been going for it for a while. So I was so, so excited when I found out that I got to be a part of that class and really honoured to be, you know, alongside Megan and Dasha and it's just, it's awesome.
And well deserved. And I know I'm coming to the end of my time - I'm gonna wrap it up - I just gotta ask you real quick; you've teased that a new album’s coming. You did some recording for it around Christmas, is that something fans are gonna be able to get their hands on this year?
Yes, by the end of the year, they will have a new record, and I can't wait for them to hear it. It's fun and it's flirty and it's pink and it's light-hearted, and I'm very, very proud of it.
Awesome. Well, we're all here for it. You just made a load of fans real happy when this gets published. Alexandra, thank you again for taking the time. I've really enjoyed getting to chat with you again.
Of course, anytime. I will see you next week.
See you next week. Have fun. She travels over to Birmingham.
Be sure to follow Alexandra at all the usual places and listen to The Last NOW
Website | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | X | Facebook
