With the release of her debut album, My Reckless Abandon, singer-songwriter Bella Kay forfeits everything but herself, turning self-destruction into self-discovery – showing that even our worst habits can become the best material.

“I’m always kind of stressed or anxious about something,” laughs 20-year-old singer-songwriter Bella Kay. Dialling in from sunny Los Angeles, it’s the week leading up to the release of her debut album, My Reckless Abandon, out 12th July via Atlantic Records. Naturally, there are a lot of things on her mind, albeit exciting, so despite her hands cascading her face as she attempts to wake herself up – “It’s all good, I’m happy,” she says, offering me a reassuring thumbs up. 

In just over a year, the Houston-native has gone from a popular TikTok soundbite to a global musician, having her third single released as an independent artist, “iloveitiloveitiloveit”, chart for 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. Fellow breakout pop star Tate McRae recorded herself singing along to the catchy bedroom-pop tune. Soon enough, her bedroom-confessionals, merely words and scribbles in notebooks and on pieces of paper, became ballads and anthems for Gen-Z yearners to sing and rage along to. And that rare success has brought in “unreal” opportunities; she’ll be supporting both Noah Kahan and Gracie Abrams on tour, before heading across North America and Canada for her own ‘The Reckless Tour’. What many budding artists spend years trying to achieve, she has been able to do so in the equivalent of an academic school year – it was only last year that she was a college freshman.

The process to becoming ‘Bella Kay’ has been one of permission and freedom – most of it granted by herself alone. Of course, there’s the team “willing to let me make mistakes and really fall into myself throughout the process,” but the risk is hers nonetheless. Reckless Abandon is Bella Kay to a T. “It’s definitely been true to the title. I didn’t even realise that until December last year. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a very prevalent part of my personality’,” she says. “But I’ve actually gotten better at habits and growing up. When I was younger, I hated doing chores, I’d never make my bed – like any other kid – but as I’ve gotten older, the bad decisions have leaked more into the way I am in relationships, and I think I used to be more this way in friendships. Now I feel like I’m actually a much better friend, and able to be there for the people around me.” So, her room is tidier, her friendships are tighter than ever, and her dream life is unfolding surreally before her eyes. Love, on the other hand – the romantic kind – remains gloriously untidy. Still, it’s the one place where she seems happiest surrendering to uncertainty.

There’s something about the romance of it all…

Bella Kay: I know…I can’t let it go.

Growing up in the Texas capital before heading to Florida for college to study law, the West Coast’s buzzing hub seemed somewhat of a distant dream. “I always wanted to live in California, and I feel like LA is the land of dreams,” she says. “A lot of people like to hate on LA, and I’m sure I’ll find things that I dislike about it, but so far, I really like it.”

Despite being at the beginning of an undoubtedly exciting career, she arrived at her current turn in a way many young artists do: through the social media pipeline. But for Bella to have the impact she’s had in such quick succession, she just had to learn to do it her way first. “So many people are going to tell you who you are and why you do what you do, and they don’t know. The only person who knows is you,” she admits. “If you go out here and become this person that you’re not, it’s gonna eat you up.” On the record’s penultimate track, “A Father’s Lament”, she stories this sentiment poignantly. “I can’t always save you, little girl / I can only pray this filthy world / Doesn’t break you down piece by piece / Like all those people did to me.”

Nonetheless, music has been the throughline since childhood – shower choruses to some of Ariana Grande’s best songs, made-up hooks, lyrics scribbled into notebooks. When her father bought her her first guitar, her tune sharpened. “He took me to the store when I told him that that was something I wanted to do, it was very sweet and very wholesome. Obviously, as I continued to love making music, they were always cheering and rooting for me.” Soon, those melodies began to take form, and music shifted from a passing interest into something that shaped her everyday life. “When it came to what I wanted to do for my life path, the pressure I put on myself to ‘go to college and do law school’ was the main driver of why I was like, ‘I can’t do this musician thing’.”

Sadly, Bella’s breakthrough appeared to come, first, in the form of a break up. Happening before she started college, it forced the Texan singer-songwriter out of her comfort zone – catalysing a shift that came with (more than) a glimmer of hope. “You know, you’re 17, 18, and you make silly decisions, but I was like, ‘Okay, this will be good’. It really felt so true in my soul. I was like, ‘I feel like this happened because I’m supposed to pursue music’,” she shares, fisting her hands to emphasise conviction. What followed was a relentless quest to figure out just who Bella could be, for herself and for her music.

2025 was spent in near-total devotion to music. Listening, collaborating, learning guitar, “That year I was learning different things. I was really trying with my music, making songs that were, actually, kind of good, and really trying to learn guitar. I was just writing and writing and writing,” she recalls. In April last year, she focused on TikTok, upping her posting frequency from twice a month to twice a week. That leap of faith sparked exactly the reaction – and outcome – that she wanted: a career as a full-time musician. “I just didn’t want to wake up in 10 years and be like ‘I didn’t even try that hard’. I wanted to give it a good freaking shot.” 

Before her 13-track record entered the mainstream ether, her TikTok-teased single “Lonely” went viral, bringing record labels knocking and a tuned-in audience expanding – and quicker by the like count. Her follow-up single, “The Sick”, saw“things [go] even crazier”. And then “iloveitiloveitiloveit” completed the trifecta. Prior, fans held onto her six-song EP, “Sick To My Stomach”, which she released on 5th December last year. It teased her witty, poignant lyricism – “I’m such a lyrics first kind of girl, they’re so important” – and grounded her indie, bedroom pop sound. 

On My Reckless Abandon, all of those sonic ingredients are deepened. Across the album, she confronts these hearty topics – sex, romance, friendship, and becoming a young adult – with an edge and snark that has become synonymous with Bella Kay the musician. Not quite rude, more blunt and forthcoming, songs like “mindf*ck”, “swu”, and “tongue”, bubble that brazenness to the forefront in favour of some (much-needed) hard truths. Both her emotion and attitude is palpable. Justified, even. And for an artist whose music Mount Rushmore is topped by pop mavericks Rihanna, Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter, she’s learned how to score sincerity with cheek and a wink. 

“When I write a song, I like to make sure every single line has a purpose and means something, [that] you’re not just saying the same thing 10 times over,” she shares. “That was my big challenge on this album.” Enlisting the help of production whizz Idarose (full name Alexis Kesselmann), who has worked with the likes of Becky G and Suki Waterhouse, she speaks fondly of both her friendship and collaboration as a means of elevation. Together, the two worked to finesse Bella’s bad decisions – sonically, lyrically and in life. It became somewhat cathartic, all three facets feeding into each other to turn those gripes into something a little more glittery. 

It feels somewhat surreal then, that in hindsight, we’re looking at a so far two-year career span. When we discuss her debut EP, “Sick To My Stomach”, even the 20-year-old honorary Californian is stunned by her growth. “I’ve changed in pretty much every single aspect,” she says with a slight laugh. “It’s funny because if you come back and listen [to the EP], I sound like 10 years old. I recorded it less than a year ago, so I’m like, did I smoke 10 packs of cigarettes? I don’t even smoke.”

For an artist that describes herself as being “as reckless as it gets”, Bella Kay possesses an unshakable clarity: “I would not change a thing,” she finishes. “I think life happens how it does for a reason, and a little recklessness is good. I’ve made some insane decisions these last couple years – or this past year – but all of it was very pivotal to get me where I am today.”

Listen to My Reckless Abandon…