Sara-Jayne Makwala King chats to Micaela Kleinsmith, winner of the first season of Apple TV+’s international competition series “My Kind of Country”.
Cape Town musician Micaela Kleinsmith is taking the world by storm after being crowned the winner of the first season of Apple TV+’s global music competition series “My Kind of Country”.
The competition took place in Nashville, Tenessee, known as the home of country music.
Not only did this home-grown talent get the backing of Apple Music, she was awarded prize money of close to
R2 million ($100 000)!
To celebrate this incredible win, Sara-Jayne Makwala King invited Kleinsmith to share her story with listeners on Weekend Breakfast.
The show is executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves. They created it to bring artists from around the world together to basically give a new face, a new sound, to country music… and I won!
Micaela Kleinsmith, SA Musician
They actually reached out to Kleinsmith – twice – on email.
“The first time I missed the email, the second time I got it but I thought it was a scam!”
After doing some sleuthing online, she saw Reese Witherspoon had posted about it at the time.
“The rest is history”, she quips.
I think they scouted online… Apparently they found a lot of South Africans… The three scouts chose four for their team, and Orville Peck chose me. He’s a country star… He grew up in Canada, but he’s actually from Johannesburg.
Micaela Kleinsmith, SA Musician
I don’t think I’ll ever really wrap my head around it (her win) because you dream about these things and as a South African, it’s like ‘what are the chances you’ll make it all the way there’ because there’s so much talent…
Micaela Kleinsmith, SA Musician
Kleinsmith says country music has always been the consistent genre for her, although some people might find this
surprising!
Her father’s love of music, especially country, exposed her to a variety of styles she relates.
My dad’s always listened to country music, so it’s always been part of my life. The first music I learned to play and to write was country music… but it’s not that big of a market in South Africa.
Micaela Kleinsmith, SA Musician
I’ve always tried to be as versatile an artist as possible so I’ve dabbled in a lot of different genres over the years… but I think the universe is telling me, this is where I need to be.
Micaela Kleinsmith, SA Musician
Not only did Kleinsmith meet all the big names involved in My Kind of Country, they included Adam Blackstone whom she describes as “the biggest music director in the world right now”.
The rising star’s future plans include returning to the US. She is also working on an album!
Watch Kleinsmith perform “Stupid Love” during the My Kind of Country finale:
Click here to access Apple TV+ and here for Apple Music.
Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the inspiring interview with Kleinsmith
This article first appeared on CapeTalk : SA winner of global country music competition ready to take the world by storm
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