If not for Dolly Parton, country music fans might not know of Alexandra Kay, in more ways than one. The rising star already had — and lost — a record deal when she sang a cover of Parton’s “Jolene,” and posted it on social media. Kay’s version quickly went viral, and her career, this time as an independent artist, took off.
“That came at the perfect time because I had just left my first record deal, and I was kind of deciding what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be, and what my next step was going to be,” Kay recalls on the podcast Spotify: Mic Check. “And so I said, ‘Okay, well, I’m just going to start recording songs that I love, sitting on my parents’ staircase. And one video led to another led to viral video after viral video after viral video. And I started to gain a big following.”
Kay learned early on to rely on her tenacity as much as her talent. The Illinois native appeared on the Netflix TV show, Westside, in 2018, while she was working on getting her music career off of the ground. What seemed to be one of the best seasons in her life quickly turned into one of the most challenging, unknowingly laying the groundwork for the determination and perseverance Kay would rely on in the years ahead.
“At the same time that I was putting my application in at a bar called Tinhorn Flats in Burbank, California, my face was getting painted over on Sunset,” Kay shares. “As I had a mop in my hand, a couple of weeks after we found out we weren’t getting a second season, that was a turning point in my life. And then, I believe it was a week later that I lost my record deal. And so everything kind of came down on me at once.
“And when I think that I can’t make it through something, I think about that moment, and I’m like, ‘I made it through that.,'” she continues. “I had to look people in the face every single day, and they were like, ‘Aren’t you the girl from the Netflix show? Why do you work here?” And I’m like, ‘Because this business is tough. What can I get you to drink?'”
As for Parton, Kay has a message for the Country Music Hall of Fame member, as one of the many female artists’ whose career in some way point back to Parton and her legacy.
“Thank you for letting me cover your songs, because I don’t know that I’d have a career,” Kay shares. “I thank you for all the inspiration to every woman in this business.”
Kay just kicked off the second leg of her Backroad Therapy Tour, Find music and tour dates at AlexandraKayOfficial.com.
