Alexandra Kay‘ is opening up about her current single, “Straight For The Heart.” Written by Jimmy Robbins, Karley Scott Collins, and Sasha Sloan, the song is one of two that Kay did not write for her latest Second Wind album. Still, it’s a song that resonates with her deeply, as she reflected on the end of her marriage.
“’Straight for the Heart’ is kind of like me. Don’t let me down easy,” Kay explains to Countrytown. “I’ve been through enough, and it’s definitely something I have felt. If you listen to my debut album called All I’ve Ever Known, I went through a divorce three years ago… I knew it was all falling apart. And the way I connected with it was just, don’t hurt me anymore, just to keep me hanging on. It’s just going to hurt us both even more, so just rip the bandaid off, so to speak.”
“I just knew if there was even one crack in the door that I wouldn’t be strong enough to leave,” she continues, “So it connected with me instantly. The story, the demo – it was amazing, and I’m just glad I was able to do it some justice.”
Kay predicts “Straight For The Heart” will be her first No. 1 single at country radio. It is also the first outside song she recorded.
“I actually heard this song while sitting in a pitch meeting for some songs,” Kay tells Country Swag. “As soon as it played, I had to have that song. I love it. I love that it really describes how I felt with this kind of female intuition of knowing that things were going south and being strong enough to know that I didn’t have to get let down easy.”
Alexandra Kay’s Redemptive Second Chapter With ‘Second Wind’
Second Wind is Kay’s sophomore album, and her first on BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville. It’s also a new chapter for Kay, who is happily in love (with band member Rocko Beall), and in a much different place than when creating All I’ve Ever Known.
“Second Wind is being feeling comfortable in my skin,” Kay explains. “It’s growing into my independence. It’s being proud of who I am when I’m by myself, and it’s the journey and falling in love again and learning to trust somebody else with my heart. And so it’s very different from the last record, where I was clearly very broken. This is just a way more mature, healed version of me. And, yeah, it’s something I’m really proud of.”
What Alexandra Kay Says About Dating Rocko Beall
Kay and Beall were friends for a long time. But after processing the grief of her divorce, and emerging stronger on the other side, she began to see him in a new way.
“He’s great. Right place, right time kind of thing, to where I was looking, seeing him in a different light,” Kay recalls on Joel Madden’s Artist Friendly podcast. “And then when we got together, the really cool thing was that, if you really unpack my last record, a lot of it was me feeling in my relationship like every little bit of love and affection was like pulling it out. And honestly feeling like I was high-maintenance when it came to love. I remember my ex used to tell me things like, ‘You need to stop watching Instagram reels,’ and ‘Real relationships aren’t like that.’
“When Rocko and I got together, he just proved to me in such a short time, and still does a year later, that I wasn’t asking too much,” she adds. “I was just asking the wrong person. … I am happier than I’ve ever been.”
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