Alexandra Kay is talented, but she is also tenacious. In a recent video shared on social media, Kay recalls how many times she was knocked down, yet somehow found the resiliience to get up again every time.
“I’ve spent the majority of my career starting over,” Kay begins. “I actually signed my first record deal in 2012. Lost that deal in 2014. Moved back in with my parents and started posting videos sitting on my parents’ staircase on Facebook, full covers. I would post them five times a week. Before I knew it, one of the ones took off. It was a Tim McGraw cover, which is so crazy, ’cause that ended up changing everything twice in my life. When I started being like, ‘Okay, we got enough followers. We can play shows,’ my guitar player quit. I was heartbroken. Then I started playing with this other guitar player. His name was Schmitty.”
From there, the two began making cover videos in a barn, which is where Kay recorded her cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.”
“I remember I had to work that night,” the siner recounts. “I was bartending. I ran into work, and I clocked in just in the nick of time. I looked down at my phone, and I clicked post. So when I got out of work, it had almost a million views. This video ended up getting 80 million views. I was getting calls from The Today Show, Ellen. Then I got a call from The Voice. Went out there, didn’t get a chair to turn. Heartbroken. 30 days later, get a call from a producer from the Netflix show.”
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Alexandra Kay’s Time On the Netflix Show ‘Westside’ Leads to Success
Of course, in a now well-known story, Kay was cast on that show, called Westside, although it did not give her career the massive boost she had been promised. Westside was canceled, and Kay lost her second record deal.
“It was really hard to pick myself back up after that,” Kay admits. Once again, Kay returned to Illinois, and lived in a tiny home, when a friend told her about TikTok.
“I decided one morning to wake up and make myself a cup of coffee, and sing a 90s country song,” Kay says. “Before I knew it, it’s 2020. I am The Coffee Girl. I got to sing and make coffee with Randy Travis. I got to go on tour with Tim McGraw as a completely independent artist.”
Amid the high highs was a devastating low, when Kay split from her husband. The divorce resulted in All I’ve Ever Known, Kay’s first record, inspired by her heartbreak.
“It ends up being a Billboard-charting album. Hundreds of thousands of copies sold,” Kay boasts. “Songs like ‘Everleave’ changed my life. All of this to say, setbacks are part of your journey. Every time I thought it was over, it had only just begun. Every step backwards was actually a step forward. It was just teeny tiny. I’m so incredibly grateful for every single one of them… There are very little people in this industry that have fallen down and gotten up as many times as I have.”