Hailing from Alberta is award-winning country recording artist and singer-songwriter Kym Simon. With three successful albums to date (“Mirror”, “Priority”, and “If You Stole My Heart”) followed by three singles (“Lonely Together”, “You Got This” and “Heroes”). For Kym, pursuing music was a given. As she mentioned, “I just love music, I always have.” However, Kym isn’t one for the spotlight. “I’m not a person who loves attention. I never sought it and I wasn’t keen on being on stage. But I knew I wanted to share my music with others so I could help them.” (Simon). And she did just that with her song, “My Priority” (2007). Kym released the song when her daughter was 2 years of age, and spent a lot of time hanging out with moms. That’s when she noticed many moms weren’t taking time for themselves outside of raising their children. So she decided to write a song that would remind them to prioritize themselves as well. In 2019, Kym released her uplifting single, “You Got This”, which inspires listeners to hang in there and recognize their own value. It was also used by the Canadian Mental Health and Wellness Organization. The song even inspired a family friend. As she explained, “Our one firefighter friend listens to it all the time. This song helps him deal with all the mental stress that comes with the job. For him to listen to my song, makes me feel great.” (Simon).
Her latest single, “Ladies Night Out” was released on January 15th, 2021. Co-written with her good friend Alicia Plosz, Ladies Night Out is an empowering country party-anthem that will make you want to get up and dance along. As Kym explained, “It’s definitely time for a party-anthem tune for women who juggle careers and family, while keeping everything together through the good times and bad. Even as we age, we need to know we can “let our hair down” and still have some crazy, let loose kind of nights (with no cover charge)! (Simon).” As for the production of the song, “It was produced by CCMA Hall of Honour Inductee Travis Switzer (Dallas Smith & Megan Patrick) and mixed by Juno© and CCMA© Award winner, Bart McKay” (Simon). In addition, the song was entirely recorded during the pandemic. As Kym mentioned, All the tracks were recorded remotely from our homes.” (Simon).
Looking back, 2020 was a challenging time for many and it especially hit the music industry harder than most. As Kym recalled, “It was the week of my birthday when everything went into lockdown. I lost all of my teaching and gigs. My husband is also a firefighter so I was concerned for his safety as a first responder. He was in charge of the covid-19 response, and would have to go house to house.” As she continued, “ I was really scared, and I was at the Vegas shooting. This was scary too, but knowing that we were all in the same boat and that the good in people would come together helped me through it. (Simon). The pandemic also meant that Kym had to turn her focus to digital venues to deliver her music and stay connected with her fans. As she explained, “I was on social media before the pandemic, but I was always a little nervous before that. But I wanted to make people smile during this time, and give them that extra little love they needed. I also did some weekly talk shows and livestreams.” (Simon). Kym also runs her own online talk show, Kym’s Corner, which surpassed its 40th episode earlier this year. “I met Oprah a few years ago. She was my idol and I always wanted to be a talk show host. So this livestream combines both my love of music and my talk show host dream. It’s been a huge highlight in my career, and I’ve been able to donate money to charity through it. I just received a massive worldwide audience expansion of people tuning in.” (Simon).
Moving forward in 2021, Kym has set several goals for herself. She is set to release another single after Ladies’ Night Out. She also has a couple of holiday songs in the works and plans to release one of them this holiday season.
Listen to Ladies’ Night Out now:
To learn more about Kym and her music, be sure to check out her music & socials:
Website: http://www.kymsimon.com (sign up for Kym’s Krazies!)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kymsimonmusic
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kymsimonmusic
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kymsimon
Apple Music: https://apple.co/30gYZsY
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30qmbox
Works Cited
Simon, Kym. Interview. Conducted by Kyla Pearson, Jan. 7 2021.
Unknown. “Featured: country recording artist and singer-songwriter Kym Simon”. Photo courtesy of Kym Simon. Accessed Jan 7 2021.
Simon, Kym “Official cover art for Kym Simon’s single, “Ladies Night Out.” Photo courtesy of Kym Simon. Accessed Jan 7 2021.
