I still feel you K'Lee

Well it’s May and here in little old New Zealand (NZ) we celebrate May as NZ music month. However one thing we don’t celebrate is pop music. We like our music to be a little alternative and have worked their way up. Anything pop, whether manufactured or not, is just laughed at (at best) or usually ignored – yet we’re happy to have given Crazy Frog three #1 hits.

It’s almost ironic then that NZ is where PopStars started with the mighty TrueBliss. Even last year we had a chart-topper in Boyband, however they weren’t even given the chance to record a second single despite having a #1.

This brings me to the case of K’Lee. In any other country, K’Lee’s career would’ve been assured. Just look at her hits tally:

Broken Wings #2, 18 weeks, gold, #4 airplay
1+1+1 (It Ain't Two) #12, 10 weeks, #26 airplay
Can You Feel Me? #2, 17 weeks, gold, #8 airplay
A Lifetime Left To Wait #4, 12 weeks, #18 airplay

All taken from the album K'Lee which debuted at it's peak of #4 and spent 8 weeks in the chart. She even supported Coolio on tour (admittedly he was a bit passe by then) and her videos weren't too bad either. But following on from that you'd expect K'Lee to go onto huge things.

However, her label Universal wouldn’t fund a second album, despite being offered a grant from the NZ Government TV/music arts funding body New Zealand On Air. Ironic given that she raps in Can You Feel Me “Universal is the label that pays me”. She went back to working in a clothes store at the same mall as Minnie from Shortland Street and a radio show before being one of the first voted off Celebrity Treasure Island.

So I say fuck you to the NZ music industry bigwigs and say let's celebrate the joyous but oh so brief career of K'Lee, the closest thing NZ had to our own Britney.