FEATURE: Spotlight: Bella Kay — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Kristen Jan Wong for Billboard

Bella Kay

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IT is brilliant that we…

PHOTO CREDIT: Maria-Juliana Rojas for Rolling Stone

welcome Bella Kay to the U.K. very soon, as she has a few dates here. Playing London, Brighton and Manchester, this incredible American artist is one that should be known to everyone. I am going to get to some interviews with her, so we can get some insight into her life and music. However, it is worth getting some biography about this must-hear artist:

“Bella Kay is quickly emerging as one of the most emotionally resonant new stars in pop. Born in Houston, Texas, Bella writes songs that dig deep into the complexities of heartbreak, identity, and survival, brought to life by her raw, timeless voice. With a sound that blends the grit of alternative-pop with the intimacy of bedroom songwriting, Bella has quickly struck a chord with millions thanks to tracks such as “The Sick,” which proved a viral phenomenon earning over 1 billion views on TikTok with hundreds of thousands of fan-made videos since release. Bella’s debut EP sick to my stomach – including “The Sick” joined by the hauntingly honest track “Lonely” and bold breakup anthem “Call Me Baby” – is a biting, charismatic collection that captures a gifted young artist coming into her own in life, love, and sound. The arrival of sick to my stomach coincided with a number of showstopping live dates, including a debut North American tour supporting Mon Rovîa that saw sold-out stops”.

This is someone that you simply cannot afford to miss out on. I am going to move on in a minute. However, it is worth noting how Bella Kay was named Capital Buzz Artist recently, and the station interviewed her. You only need to listen to a song or two to realise that here is an artist that is going to join the leagues of the biggest artists of today. I can see Kay working alongside Pop artists of today who she admires greatly (maybe a Sabrina Carpenter collaboration?):

“Bella Kay is the type of artist who you can't ignore when you hear her music. Based in Southern California, the singer-songwriter first caught people's attention when she started teasing her debut single 'The Sick' on social media. The song quickly went viral and has since been streamed over 90 million times on Spotify alone.

Inspired by pop girlies like Sabrina Carpenter and Tate McRae, Bella has an incredible knack for combining irresistible pop melodies with the kind of confessional lyrics that leave an impression on you long after you first listen to them. It's no wonder that everything she releases has taken on a life of its own.

In January, Bella released her single 'iloveitiloveitiloveit' and it's quickly become one of the biggest hits of the year so far. In the beloved song, Bella sings candidly about her toxic relationship with toxic relationships. In the chorus, she proclaims: I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it, 'cause I do / I'm a couple minutes out from rеlapsing into you.

Bella has since released her three-track project a couple minutes and both 'steady' and 'wonder wander' capture her unique ability to express her innermost thoughts in perfect pop song form. With multiple live concerts and festival dates to come in 2026, expect to see Bella everywhere by the end of the year”.

I want to come to this interview from The Lunar Collective. They chatted with Bella Kay earlier in the year around her three-song project. She has an album coming along, so this is a really exciting time. I am a recent convert to her music, and I already love what she has put out. Whilst Kay was reeleasing music last year, I think that 2026 has been her biggest year. One that has truly got her attention and buzz. A unique artist with a long future in front of her:

“FLOATING IN-BETWEEN WORLDS OF STRIPPED BACK INSTRUMENTALS AND CINEMATIC PRODUCTION SWELLS—Bella Kay faces her emotional habits with a brutal, yet confident honesty. a couple minutes out works as a brief, but impactful time capsule of a romance just as delicate and emotional. Kay owns her vices on “iloveitiloveitiloveit” before falling into spiraling self-doubt on “Steady” and eventually finding a fragile sense of closure on “wonder wander.”

Her resonant vocals deliver lyrics worthy of secret diary entries. Kay details the emotional breakthroughs and setbacks she has experienced while fighting between her heart and mind. From her early days of performing with only herself and a used guitar, to now building her sound around more access to recording studios and advanced production, Kay approaches her songwriting in the same way she has from the beginning—with integrity and a commanding presence. She is brave in the face of insecurity and ignores any fear of judgement as she uses music to capture her most raw and intense experiences.

Fresh off the heels of a personal Hot 100 record, Luna sat with Kay to chat about all things a couple minutes out, her evolution as an artist and her forthcoming debut album.

“LUNA: How did you initially discover music and find it as an outlet to express yourself?

KAY: I'd always loved singing, especially when I was really young. As I got older, I fell in love with songwriting and composition. I was obsessed with Olivia [Rodrigo] and Lizzie McAlpine. I wanted to be a songwriter. I was like, “this is the coolest thing ever!” And so I started writing songs and I got this $50 guitar at Guitar Center. And I literally haven't stopped writing songs since.

LUNA: That's such a fun story! How do you think your sound has evolved since then and what influences have helped you shape your music and songwriting?

KAY: I think the funny thing is that I feel like the most shaping sound-wise has been in this past year. Before that, it was literally just me and my guitar. There's only so much I could have done. I think I always was really into the indie-folk kind of thing. When I started going into studio sessions, I was exposed to a whole new world. There are so many other things you can do with sound.

LUNA: Can you recall any instances in your life where a specific artist or song has stuck with you and inspired you to pursue music or to explore a certain sound? Is there a specific artist or project that has helped you through a difficult or emotional time in your life?

KAY: There are so many artists that have shaped me and made me want to pursue music. That would be an insanely long list. The one standout that changed how I see music and has shaped my sound the most is probably Sabrina Carpenter’s album, emails I can't send. That album changed my brain chemistry.

LUNA: Yeah, I agree! I listen to it all the time and it gets better with every listen. Now for a fun question. For new listeners or people just discovering you through this interview, how would you personally describe the music you make?

KAY: I would describe it as late night drive music. My music lives in that kind of cool and sad world that I imagine while I’m on a late night drive.

LUNA: I can definitely imagine going on late night drives with your songs blasting from the speakers. You've already spoken a bit about your debut album. What else can you tease about it?

KAY: I think the coolest part about this album is I'm mainly going in with Alexis [Kesselman] and we're working with things I have done before but we are getting smarter and better. The lyrics are sharper. They're smarter. I'm so excited. I don't really want the sound to feel polished and super clean. I like that it's a bit dirty and off kilter. I think that's really cool. So we’re leaning even more so into that. And the process has been cool because now I know what to ask for when I'm in the studio. I'm like, “we should do bass, we should do this, we should do that, we should stack harmonies…” I feel like I've really found my groove with this album. I'm so proud and I'm really excited for everybody to hear it. I think it's going to be fun”.

I did want to drop in a recent Rolling Stone interview, but that is paywalled (and I am not subscribing to put in one interview), which is a massive downside of what they do. If you have subscribed to Rolling Stone, then go and check it out, so I will have to finish with an interview I can access. That is from Billboard. A tremendously proimisign artist who you instantly bond with, if you can see Bella Kay live, then do so. She will go down a storm when she plays in the U.K., that is for sure:

“With Kay’s bright, earnest voice chugging the acoustic guitar-driven track’s momentum forward from start to finish, “iloveitiloveitiloveit” is the winking lament of someone who can’t escape the cycle of a slightly concerning, rollercoaster-like romance — packaged as a carefree love song in which ignoring red flags is thrilling, not self-sabotage. (“I love it when we fight, and I like it when you’re mean,” she admits in the lyrics. “We don’t have to get into what that says about me.”)

“I don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, this is a toxic relationship,’” she says. “I look at it as like, ‘Oh!’” — she cheers, smiling and shaking her head wildly, as if she’s in the middle of a rave — “‘This is a toxic relationship!’”

Intentionally heartbreaking or not, the song’s wide-reaching relatability and punchy lyricism launched “iloveitiloveitiloveit” onto the Billboard Hot 100 in February — Kay’s first entry on the chart, which has since reached No. 17. It was officially released in January, but she first posted the chorus on TikTok immediately after writing it in “five minutes” on her guitar in November. Within the next month, she’d finished the lyrics with producer and now-frequent collaborator Alexis Kesselman and settled on its breathless, no-spaces title — despite people “teasing” her for it — to match the chaotic nature of the song.

“The whole point is like, ‘I shouldn’t do this, but I love it,’” she explains with a shrug. “It has to feel stupid and crazy.”

“iloveitiloveitiloveit” came at exactly the right time for Kay. In the spring of 2025, she decided to begin regularly posting music clips on TikTok in hopes of launching a career, despite being two years into a prelaw degree at Texas A&M. “I was so embarrassed,” the Houston native recalls of sharing her first original song snippets on the platform. “My TikToks were getting, like, 30 likes … but I kept going.”

As her fan base took off that summer — largely thanks to viral clips of her moody, stripped-down tracks “Lonely” and “The Sick,” which appear in full on her November 2025 self-released EP sick to my stomach — she signed with Atlantic Records in July and then partnered with Immersive Management’s Adam Mersel and Priscilla Felten in October.

The fire had been lit — she just needed one song to pour gasoline on the flame. Released on Jan. 11, “iloveitiloveitiloveit” did that in abundance, racking up nearly half a million uses on TikTok to date. “When it started charting, I was like, ‘This is insane,’” Kay says tentatively, as if she still can’t quite believe it herself.

But the most fulfilling evidence, she says, is how loud her fans scream the words back at her when she sings the track at shows. Felten notes that Kay’s performances have been key to the success of “iloveitiloveitiloveit” — particularly her series of free, intimate pop-up concerts in Los Angeles, London, Houston and more cities beginning in November.

“The L.A. show in particular … even though [the song] was unreleased at that time, hearing it in that context — and the word-of-mouth that spread from there — was powerful,” Felten says of the 100-capacity performance. “It was also the first time you were seeing her [in person], because everyone had just known her solely through a phone.”

Mersel adds that Kay dropping “iloveitiloveitiloveit” on a Sunday evening, forgoing the industry-standard Friday release window, has been a strategic win — and one inspired by Kay’s prior farm-to-table delivery of sharing songs straight to social media. “During the school year, when Sunday nights can really be the blues for a lot of kids, it’s a nice little treat before the beginning of the week,” Mersel says, pointing out that the team has stuck with non-Friday releases for Kay’s other singles. “[Fans] felt like they were communicating with her in real time. They didn’t feel like there was a middleman involved.”

Next on the agenda is her first headlining tour through theaters in Europe and North America this spring, plus even more yet-to-be-announced live shows after that. And, if all goes to plan, Kay will release her already nearly complete debut album this summer. She says that the sound and emotional nuance of “iloveitiloveitiloveit” has informed the project more than any other track, recalling with a self-deprecating laugh, “I was talking to Alexis, and I was like, ‘There’s not enough sad songs.’ And she was like, ‘Bella. There’s like one and a half happy songs, and they’re not even really that happy.’”

But just as she did with “iloveitiloveitiloveit,” Kay has her own way of looking at things. “A good sad song to me is always going to be a happy song, just because you feel so understood [by it],” she says. “I want to make sure that I do pop my own way. I don’t want it to be super shiny and polished — I want it to be dirty and real”.

Connect with Bella Kay and listen to her wonderful music. With her debut album being worked on and with us fairly soon, it is a moment when this ‘rising’ artist will truly ascend and establish her place as a modern great. I believe that when it comes to her music. I have featured a lot of artists in my Spotlight feature already this year, though few are as brilliant…