Alexandra Kay burst onto the country music scene by posting videos of her singing covers of songs like Dolly Parton‘s “Jolene,” Randy Travis‘ “Forever And Ever, Amen,” and more. But it was her cover of Tim McGraw‘s “Don’t Take The Girl” that changed her life, and career, forever, when her version of his hit single caught McGraw’s attention, and earned Kay a spot opening for him on his McGraw Tour 2022.

“I started doing this thing in the morning on TikTok, where I would make myself a cup of coffee, just like everybody does, and I always am blaring ’90s country in the morning,” Kay revealed on Pensacola, Florida’s Cat Country 98.7 radio station, adding that she starts the day by asking Alexa to play music from that era.

 

“One day, I slid in and was singing a Jo Dee Messina song, and I had a big coffee, like in a mason jar, and somebody commented and said, ‘How do you make your coffee?’ Kay recalled. “I replied, and I made it in front of them, and I sang a song by The Chicks, and it blew up. I said, ‘Okay, maybe we’ll try this again.’ I did it the next day, and it was crazy. It was like every single video I did with it, for days, multiple times a day, it was like three million, four million, five million, six million, ten million, 12 million, 15 million [views]. It was crazy. It was nuts. It was a whirlwind, for sure. I think I gained like a million followers in a week.”

Kay’s rapid popularity on social media did plenty for her career, including showing her parents that her decision to pursue music full-time instead of getting a degree, was correct.

“My parents didn’t want me to choose music over college when I did a really long time ago, but they finally came around,” Kay said. “It definitely helped having Tim McGraw pick me and put me on his tour … I think that was that moment. And especially since my parents grew up listening to Tim and Faith [Hill]. So imagine them being backstage, and Tim is just walking up to my dad, shaking his hand and my dad’s shaking [his hand]. I was like, ‘Okay, are we good now?'”

Kay has plenty of highlights from her time on the McGraw Tour 2022, but her favorite is when she got to play in St. Louis, with her entire family in attendance.

“Just watching them — I got to play his entire amphitheater tour, all summer,” said the singer. “We all did. So it was probably when I got to play the St. Louis amphitheater, the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre. It’s where I watched every single band my entire life. It’s where I’m from, so it’s where I’ve seen every single show. I manifested and prayed about it when I would stand in that crowd every single time. I would tell whoever was around me that at some point, I was going to be up there someday. And so getting to step on that stage in St. Louis with my whole family there to see me, that was the moment we were all like, ‘Okay, this is gonna work. And it’s gonna work very much in a nontraditional way.'”

Nontraditional way, indeed. Kay has had plenty of opportunities to give up her dreams. Instead, her early setbacks served as the motivation for her to keep working harder than she ever has, a gamble she took on herself that ultimately paid off well in the end.

“I’ve had two record deals,” Kay revealed, “I’ve been on the Netflix Original Series. I’ve been chasing this down for about ten years now, and to be able to do it the way that I’ve done it, and taken a really rocky road, definitely the road less traveled way, it’s really been rewarding, and I have a lot of people like Tim to thank for that, for believing in me.”

Kay also spent time on the road last year with Tracy Lawrence and Clay Walker, as well as headlining her own Backroad Therapy Tour. She already has plenty of dates on the calendar in 2023, with more expected to be announced shortly. Find all of Kay’s music and tour dates at AlexandraKayOfficial.com.