An Alexandra Kay European Tour has been a long time coming, and when All I’ve Ever Known: The Tour announced a Glasgow date, you best believe the Scottish fans started dusting off their pink-est shirts, glitteriest accessories and white boots ready to give Miss Kay the welcome back to Scotland reception she deserves. I sat down with Alexandra before the show to reminisce about her last time in Europe, developing her latest album and her sound and also what else is in the pipeline for 2025.
Alexandra, welcome back to Europe, now you have been here for 3 or 4 weeks now? You are living your Lizzie McGuire lifestyle travelling the continent right now! How does it feel to be back here after so long.
It’s been so long! I did C2C years ago, but I came back in between and did a headline show here, so I did London, a small room, I think it was 150 people? Then c2c then did 1000 in London, we then did Glasgow, Manchester and London. That was it, though! Now we’re back a while later, doing 3 weeks – so it’s a full circle moment and I love it!
That’s so exciting. I mean new cities, new places, new fans and even a new song which is only 1 week old! What kind of reception have you had so far?
It’s been great – so so fun to be out here and share new music – it all kind of lineup up properly – at first it was going to be like let’s head out to Europe and revamp this old record (All I’ve Ever Known) and funnily it’s the first time we’ve been able to play that record over here. Now we’re able to go on stage and play not only revamped versions of older tracks but have the crowds over here singing word for word the lyrics to brand new songs as well, it’s such an amazing experience.
One thing I love the most about an Alexandra Kay discography is the range of genres and topics you cover in your songs – one that makes me want to kick a DOOR DOWN is Best Worst Ex – when that comes on, nobody better touch that AUX cord! Do you get fans approach you, telling you about the worst things their exes have done?
Haha, thank you so much, that song is iconic! But you know what, honestly, I do, but not from that song. It’s kind of just from the album in general because a lot of people who come to the show have been divorced. So, you know, like I have. That’s why they latch only to the record. It’s like a healing record, I get a lot of incredible insights into all of these beautiful people’s lives. We get to heal together through the album. But, surprisingly y no, I don’t get people telling me about crazy things their exes have done. But once at a show, someone handed up a poster about the most obscene thing their ex did, and I read it out – and afterwards was like “Oh gosh that was so inappropriate there’s kids at the show, maybe I shouldn’t have done that!” But it’s a wild ride!
Like you said, you meet people from so many different walks of life. What do you hope someone who comes to an Alexandra Kay show leaves with?
Hope. I want people to leave with a feeling of community, which is more than I can ever wish for my fans to experience. It’s so beautiful when I see people make friends at shows. We’re not the kind of crowd that is raging and hammered drunks pushing each other – and if we do have that – it’s getting stopped real quick! People literally come on their own to my concerts and introduce themselves to a whole group of people and they will fly in and stay at the same hotel – meet up and come together and it’s so lovely – I wanna promote a girlhood within my shows.
Country music especially has ramped up here in Europe – whereas usually, it was a bit of a niche, it’s so nice to see more people not only accepting of the genre but getting involved and attending shows themselves. Lindsay (photographer) even went to her first Scotty McCreery gig on Sunday!
Oh my gosh, I love Scotty!! Do you wanna hear a funny story? When I was about 18 years old, I was a hostess at a restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel and I was told with a (shush do not tell anyone you know this) kinda insight that Scotty McCreery would be coming in – and EVERYONE knew I loved Scotty – this was right after American Idol. So you best believe I went home put ALL MY MAKEUP ON waited for him to come in, and sure enough he did. I was in my head like “We are in love” but that was a long time ago!
I loved him – it’s crazy cause our trailers were right next to each other aT Stagecoach but I’ve actually never met him in person during my career!
I love that – we would also love a collab so can we float that idea?!
I’m here for it!!
I mean Scotty had the energy high in Glasgow over the weekend – how can we expect yourself and your band to deliver the same levels here tonight?
You know we have been on this European tour for a month now and just getting to the UK is where we have such a huge fanbase. This show and the Manchester show have been sold out for SO LONG – there are very few tickets left in London, so I feel this is where our energy is ramping up because we’ve been looking forward to the whole tour getting to this point and now it’s so close.
The weird things about this tour, and I truly put my faith in God for this because he will always bring you back to these moments to humble you. Back home we do rooms of around 3000 cap rooms – and in Paris recently playing for 76 people. You know what I mean? Like a crowd in a small club – in Milan we had a 30-person crowd and it was so nice to go back to the more intimate crowd club days as it’s been a long time. We were looking forward to getting back to these shows and playing to thousands of people again – the energy will be there. We are all so stoked!
It’s funny you say that, we sat down with Chase Matthew back in March and he mentioned how in the States and Canada it is always these big venues and then it’s cool to come over the pond and be playing to a much more intimate crowd and kinda throwing it back to the early days again.
Oh my god, I love that guy, he is an absolute sweetheart! He is so right though it’s cool coming over here and playing these smaller caps shows I mean I was recently on tour with Jelly Roll at the end of last year and I did arenas with him and that was going from there to these smaller clubs I was like I love them both it gives me range – I do this thing I the middle of the show each night where I ask the audience what they wanna hear, we switch it up every night depending on what people wanna hear – and I play whatever they ask – you can’t do that in arenas which is why these shows mean the most it’s the OG fans wanting the OG tracks. These are the moments with your fans where you can tailor the show to make them feel like they’ve seen a show nobody else ever has before, it’s really special.
That’s so exciting – is this where I need to delve right into the throwback archives to pick a song that hasn’t seen the light of day in a while for Glasgow?!
It’s funny you say that – like recently the crowd asked for All The Cowboys – I haven’t played that song in over 3 years and I was forgetting the lyrics mid set but we were all laughing about it – it was a laugh, cool and laid back – exactly what you want with an audience interacting segment of your show.
On the topic of Jelly Roll, I have to say the Twister Soundtrack is one of the greatest film soundtracks that I’ve heard – I’m gonna say it – since SHREK!
Yes Shrek! That’s funny we were LITERALLY just talking about Shrek he has a Scottish accent! But I completely agree – when I got the call from Jelly Roll to appear on that album it was an honor and an absolute dream – I couldn’t breathe for a second there!
We turned it around so quickly, the day after I was playing Stagecoach and they parked the bus I played 8 hours from then – they bussed me over to a house – I recorded it in a house in Palm Springs with Jelly Roll and by the time I got back, I literally had 5 minutes to change and get on stage to play my set. ;like how crazy it is to make that song with Jelly – but it was a dream and I love the song.
That’s incredible – and the album itself even introduced me to a handful of artists which have since been added to my playlists so absolute 10/10 record! IS there anyone on your radar right now that you think I need to get listening to or anyone you have recently come across that you’d love to to start sharing over here in the UK?
Oh my gosh, there are so many I love Emily Anne Roberts – she is incredible and I think she is going to be absolutely massive – same with Mae Estes, Hayley May Campbell, Julia Cole – I have so many girls that I love them on the country scene. I’m such a fan of female artists, this is the time right now – like we’re entering a time like the 90s where females are dominating the airwaves and there are so many talented females on the rise. Obviously Ella Langley just had her huge moment, but I was watching her far beyond that.
Chanel Yates who has been on tour with us is absolutely crushing it. I did not know her prior to this tour but when we were selecting support slots, someone played her track Big Girl Boots and I was like I LOVE THIS SONG – so unfortunately nobody else got a look in because she was coming on tour with me no questions asked!
Lauren Alania said it first with Ladies in the 90s and she wasn’t wrong – we understand!
Yes yes yes! I absolutely ADORE her, we were recently sitting down when she gave me the news that I was the next CMT’s Next Women of Country Class of 2025 – she is so fun and so wholesome and also due to give birth REAL soon if she hasn’t already!? She is so real and amazing – female power always!
Thank you so much for chatting with me Alexandra, you’re an artist I have wanted to see for so long, so getting to sit down and chat with you is everything and more I really appreciate it.
Thank You so much Lauren, that is so sweet, I promise we are going to keep coming back here until we are playing arenas – mark my words, Alexandra Kay is going to be back!
Interview by Lauren Page at SWG3 Glasgow on the 27th May 2025
