Country star Kaylee Bell on unexpected motherhood

Instead of holding a guitar, country music phenomenon Kaylee Bell is holding a baby - her baby, in fact.

Known as her “little cowboy” to the outside world, the wee fella has hit that alert phase of life at four months old. He is googly-eyed and smiling and absolutely unaware that his mother is currently one of New Zealand’s most globally successful artists. He is in Bell’s home music studio in Auckland, surrounded by images of her on stage before thousands, a plaque from Spotify celebrating 100 million song streams and a rack of guitars.

And Bell is surprised, not by the country music thing, but by the mum thing.

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Since she was a teenager, the musician now in her mid-30s has suffered a string of debilitating health issues that various doctors pinned on everything from irritable bowel syndrome to mental health to endometriosis, a painful condition when tissue similar to the lining inside the uterus grows outside the uterus.

She didn’t think she could have a baby until a supermarket test last year confirmed the pregnancy with longtime partner and fellow musician Nick Campbell.

"It was pure shock like when we found out we were having a baby, I was in Nashville, and my partner was over, and I'd missed some periods, and I was like, That's not normal.

"... It was wild. Your whole life flashes before you a little bit."

Bell won the inaugural Te Manu Mātārae, recognising international success, at last year’s Aotearoa Music Awards, but the Waimate-born artist had been working on her craft since entering country music competitions as a kid.

Success in her 20s had not stuck, including winning Best Country Album at the 2014 New Zealand Music Awards for Heart First. During Covid and at the age of 32, she was frustrated. On a whim, she applied to The Voice Australia, a reality TV show song contest. The smart people at The Voice said yes and suggested she sing her catchy original song, ‘Keith’, a tribute to Australian country music legend Keith Urban, who was a judge on the show.

“You couldn’t have written that script,” said Bell, of what was to follow.

As her powerful vocals rang out around the studio, Urban, whose back was turned for the blind audition, looked like someone was pouring candy in his ears.

“...Everyone says, you know, a song can change your life, and that song has totally changed my life, which is amazing,” said Bell.

She started that day with 400 TikTok followers and woke up the next morning with 150,000. While she didn’t win that season of The Voice ‘Keith’ reached #12 on the US Billboard charts for Country Digital Sales. The song has now been streamed 36 million times on Spotify.

Bell’s rise was perfectly timed. Not only are non-traditional country artists like Post Malone, Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey releasing country albums, but country music - and with it cowboy/cowgirl fashion - crossed over to the mainstream.

Country artists Shaboozey and Jelly Roll (who started as a rapper) have been enjoying significant success on the regular Billboard charts. Even the Wiggles released a country album this year, collaborating with a number of artists, including Dolly Parton and Bell.

Ever since The Voice, Bell’s career has been humming. She is the most streamed female country music artist in Australasia. She supported Ed Sheeran on all six of his New Zealand stadium shows in 2023. She won the award for Global Country Artist at the 2023 Country Music Awards in Nashville. It’s a huge achievement for an independent artist, meaning Bell is mostly driving her own marketing, touring, recording and creative vision.

When she found she was pregnant in 2024, not long after she won big at the Aotearoa Music Awards last May, she already had some of the biggest shows of her career booked. Bell toured Australia with US superstar Kane Brown in the early stages of pregnancy. She was due to headline the CMC Rocks Queensland festival in March 2025 only weeks after her due date Bell will be at the Country Calling UK festival in August.

“There's no right time to have a child but particularly as a female in music. I think it's such a big conversation. Still, I think about, you know, can you have a baby and juggle a successful music career?”

Within hours of that positive pregnancy test and once the shock had receded, Bell and Campbell’s minds were swimming with the life they could give their unborn kid with time split between New Zealand and Nashville.

“I look at a lot of [country] artists in America who tour all year around, and they have their families out with them the whole time, which is so wholesome, and again, something that I love, that we celebrate in country music because why shouldn’t it? Right?

“If that’s your life, like I love that country is all about being authentic and talking about your life.”

The pregnancy progressed fine until a few weeks out from the due date in January when Bell woke up with one thigh ballooning out. She had deep vein thrombosis.

“....so we had to have a very planned birth, and that also didn’t go as planned.”

Her baby boy was delivered via caesarean, which came with a silver lining. If you listen to the lyrics of her song ‘Good Things’ you will know that positive is Bell’s standard state of mine.

‘I won't give up now, 'cause it all comes 'round / Something feels different, it's all gonna change / When all of the pieces just fall into place.’

Her baby had a tongue tie, one of the worst the surgeon had seen. The extended stay in hospital meant she had days of support from nurses to help with breastfeeding, which a tongue tie can significantly disrupt.

“I just assumed I would breastfeed,” said Bell, of the bottle-feeding scenario she didn’t feel equipped to consider.

“I found the pumping, and I just found the time hormonal, like I was crying every day. It was a lot.

“So breastfeeding wasn't for me, I think and I'm happy to admit that I tried for two months, and I think that was, you know, a good chunk of time.”

About six weeks after her little cowboy was born, Bell hit the stage again at CMC Rocks in Australia. She was rewarded with a crowd of 32,000 singing her songs back to her.

Bell found great comfort during her pregnancy from women who had spoken up in podcasts or on TikTok about their rocky roads to motherhood. Now, she is paying it forward with raw conversations about her health battles and experience as a female in New Zealand’s health system.

Bell’s uncertain journey to motherhood really started with peritonitis as a teenager, which resulted in major abdominal surgery.

“... I just remember I spent my 16th birthday in hospital and woke up and they were like ‘You’re pretty lucky to be here’ and it was just one of those moments in life where you’re like ‘Man, I’ve got to go live my life’ because that was as close as it gets.”

She has been in and out of the healthcare system ever since with a condition that perplexed doctors. Eventually, endometriosis was suspected, which came with the classic advice of having a baby young and your body will fix itself. Bell was 21 at the time and didn’t even have a boyfriend.

“...all these crazy things that you get told. We need to do better and we need to look after females more and believe them.”

Bell still doesn’t have answers because of the invasive procedure required to diagnose endometriosis. It’s something she is planning to do in the next year or so at a personal cost of about $30,000 because private health insurance won’t cover a preexisting condition.

Last month, Bell released a new single 'Ring On It'. The cheeky tune was written as a tribute to the humour of country music legend Shania Twain. She didn’t expect it to be released or be loved by her longterm partner.

“I’ve honestly had so many messages from girls being like ‘I’ve sent this to my boyfriend 10 times this week'.

“That’s exactly why that song needs to exist in the world, right?”

Bell is up for four awards this May at the Aotearoa Music Awards including Album of the Year for Nights Like This. She is also due to release a new album in later this year.

In her songwriting and performing, Bell considers the thousands of teenage and tween female fans who come to her concerts. She feels responsible for how her music shapes them.

“... I hope that they feel empowered to go and do something with their life that might seem crazy or might seem a little challenging, but it gives them the confidence to do that.

“Because, you know, I grew up in a small town, and music was never, ever anything that I thought I'd do as a career.”