Dunedin-raised Judah Kelley believes that building your own power and voice is important, and that music is a way to share that message with anyone who wants to listen. “It’s a better message to send than just another sad song,” she said. She continues to be a local crowd-pleaser, and has just released her debut single ‘READY’ on Spotify.
During lockdown, Judah put on two charity gigs online, and has played at two of Dunedin’s SOFAR shows. You might have heard her at Beerfest, or playing in Queenstown for New Years. She gathers a good crowd, but lately her biggest fan has actually been an algorithm.
A website called Every Sound at Once guesses the most popular local artists on a uni campus, and Judah tops the charts at Otago. Being at the top of the list was “reassuring, [it’s nice] to see that people actually are listening,” said Judah when we told her about the website. “You never really know how a song’s gonna go.”
A lot of Judah’s songs are about the darker side of love and relationships. “It’s a statement, pulling yourself above somebody else’s weight that’s held you down and setting the bar for what you allow into your life,” she explained, and “sending an FU to the people who think they can just take what they want.”
In her early days, Judah Kelley was sometimes confused with Australian-born Judah Kelly of Tennessee Whiskey. A few folks came up to Kelley after her first gig at Dog With Two Tails and said that they’d expected the X-Factor star but “were very happy with what we got.”
Critic was also very happy with what we got. Judah’s new single is dreamy, starts off slowly, but quickly becomes a swooning banger of a reflection on your relationship with yourself. It can be listened to critically, or just jammed to if you don’t want to confront the realities of your self-worth. There’s definitely a time and mood for that.
The first line in the song is “why do you keep on calling my name”, which Judah said “kinda stems from when it's late at night and someone sends you a message that you're no longer connected to and you're like “come on”.
“At the moment”, said Judah, “there’s a big push to normalize saying ‘no’ and to normalize giving consent”. She’s also known for a song called “Not for You”, which stems from similar values and is equally a banger, though of a slightly different vibe.
“It’s empowerment-focused,” she described. “A little bit sassy, a lot of strength, with a hint of turmoil. An experience of growth and coming into an understanding of what you deserve.”
She said that the song was a positive one, despite the fact that it related to negative experiences in her life. She described getting into a taxi “and the driver turns around and looks you up and down and you're automatically uncomfortable.”
You can find Judah Kelley on Spotify, Facebook @helloitsjudah, or at gigs around town.