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Back in New Zealand for the Summer, Kaylee Bell is starting her year off with a bang.\xa0

The country-pop artist has been busy with festivals and family, performing with Synthony at Rhythm and Alps just before the count down on New Years Eve.\xa0

\u201cI don\u2019t know how I top that now for a New Year,\u201d she told Newstalk ZB\u2019s Mike Hosking.\xa0

\u201cThat was a pretty cool way to spend that.\u201d\xa0

\xa0She briefly jumped across to Australia and performed at a few Meatstock festivals, and most importantly, has been getting ready for her own tour kicking off this week.\xa0

The \u2018Nights Like This Tour\u2019 kicks off tonight in Tauranga, Bell travelling up and down New Zealand to perform her newest album which drops Friday.\xa0

\u2018Nights Like This\u2019 is Bell\u2019s third studio album and with over 500k monthly listeners on Spotify, she's definitely got a presence in the industry.\xa0

\u201cIt was really cool to come out as a guest and have people singing along,\u201d she told Hosking, referring to her New Years performance. \xa0

\u201cTo hear people singing your music is like, the biggest compliment, and that\u2019s been happening a lot more.\u201d\xa0

Bell\u2019s career is still growing, still evolving, and she\u2019s taking inspiration from the performance styles of the likes of Shania Twain and Keith Urban.\xa0

\u201cWe\u2019re still growing this thing, but we have big dreams and big expectations.\u201d\xa0

She and her band rehearse every week, \u201cworking their butts off\u201d in Bell\u2019s words.\xa0

\u201cWe\u2019re always trying to be better.\u201d\xa0

The tour is a reflection of that, initially starting with much fewer stops than the fourteen it\u2019s wound up with.\xa0

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty much covering almost everywhere through the country, which is exciting.\u201d\xa0

From Whangarei right down to Invercargill and Nelson, Bell of course making a stop in her hometown of Waimate.\xa0

\u201cWe never want to miss that one.\u201d\xa0

Not only will she be touring this year but Bell is returning to the festival circuit in Australia, this time as the headlining act.\xa0

\u201cAs a female country artist, it\u2019s important I think, to step up and own that headlining space,\u201d she told Hosking.\xa0

\u201cI think a lot of the time we get put into these support roles and that's also awesome, but it\u2019s just nice to like, be like, \u2018nah, I\u2019m gonna headline\u2019 and sort of, you know, take that risk.\u201d \xa0

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important.\u201d\xa0

\u2018Nights Like This\u2019 releases Friday 15th of March. \xa0

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