Alexandra Kay is leaving the heartbreak in the past and is ready to share her healing journey through her music. On Friday, the country singer released her album, Second Wind, which follows Kay as she finds love again after a volatile relationship and divorce that inspired 2023’s All I’ve Ever Known.
“This record represents growth out of a time when my whole life was just falling apart,” Kay tells Rolling Stone. “I feel like I’m giving a lot of hope to a lot of people who connected with the last record… The same women that I held in my arms that were bawling their eyes out because they were leaving their relationship are now, two years later, introducing me to their new boyfriends.”
Kay says the new record features several “windows-down moments,” dance tracks, and loads of feminine energy — but also a reflection of her healing. “We kick off the album with [‘Better Off,’] a song that feels like it lives in the world of the last record,” she says. “So then I can slowly bring people in from all I’ve ever known land into Second Wind because healing isn’t linear, and I didn’t want the record to feel like I just popped out and was like, ‘I’m not heartbroken anymore.’”
She adds, “I put a lot of time and effort into the sequencing of the record so you could really feel that and feel me trust somebody again with your heart. I let the armor fall. I just want to be that light at the end of the tunnel for people.”
Kay is particularly excited for people to hear songs “Right Now” and “Measure of a Man,” on which she changes her perspective on what truly makes a man a man. “It’s not about fixing a hole in the wall. Painting a house or chopping wood, it’s about how he treats his woman,” she says. “I’m really resonating with that, seeing my partner show up for me every single day and proving to me that he can take care of me, should I need it.”
Kay clarifies: “I’m a very strong independent woman, but it’s great to finally have that support in my life!”
Kay launched the Second Wind era with the single “The Last,” and followed it with three more singles: “Feminine Energy,” “Straight for the Heart,” and “What He Does,” which dropped in mid-September. Along with her music career, she owns a coffee shop called “Coffee Girl” in Waterloo, Illinois, inspired by her virality on TikTok singing covers while drinking coffee.
