KELS: 2026

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

Back in December of 2025, KELS says that she had all of seven dollars to her name. Keeping barely afloat with her own housecleaning business while chasing her dream of breaking out as a singer and songwriter, the Atlanta-based singer and songwriter was at a personal and professional crossroads. She wasn't ready to call it quits, but she was flat broke and at wit's end. 

As she discusses in this new FUV Live session, her sinewy, smoky alto — and that dream — was worth that investment of back-breaking work, patience, and financial risk. KELS began as a jazz vocalist (living in New York for a spell), but her songs and lyrics pointed her to something different. She landed on what she calls "dirty princess blues": a KELS combo of nonchalance, toughness, and vulnerability, threaded with soulful pining, and topped with dollop of country-western swagger and husky rock 'n' roll grit.

Over the years, she strategized how to best handle her visibility, posting her songs on her socials multiple times a day, and built a dedicated following. She eventually leaned on on crowdfunding to afford a tour, all with steely DIY determination. But KELS needed a genuine break.

That break came in the guise of what became KELS' Triple A radio hit: "Gone," a bluesy groove of a goodbye song that she had diligently posted, accruing 50,000 streams by Christmas 2025. With the luck of that tune and a critical podcast mention, "Gone," written with what KELS calls "simplicity," was key to getting her a label deal by January of this year. The original mix of "Gone" now claims close to six million Spotify streams alone.

Her 2026 EP Dirty Princess Blues, which dropped earlier this summer on Republic, is an early sample of what fans might expect of KELS' forthcoming first album, currently in the works. For her visit to Studio A, joined by by guitarist Ashleigh Wulf, KELS played three songs from that EP: "Call Me," "6ft Under," and "Gone."

KELS'  social media-built persona has also evolved through the years via her homegrown videos with her band (and a random goat that placidly grazes while KELS croons). She costumes herself in "dirty princess" duds too: from denim Daisy Dukes to gingham mini-dresses, and usually a signature beehive, set with fat plastic curlers, rivaling Amy Winehouse's towering barnet. KELS loves making a bold, theatrical statement and living her life's ambition, all of which she discussed with cheerful candor in our interview.

A former triathlete and equestrian, KELS arrived in the Bronx hobbling badly with a hurt leg after falling off of a scooter in Nashville (hence why she's seated in this session). KELS is used to running hard, fueled by her dreams, bypassing obstacles. She's not going to take her eye off of that finish line ahead: a winner in every way.

[Recorded: 6/23/26. Engineered by Jim O'Hara, Holden Buckley, and Alessandro Badalamenti. Produced by Gwen Taylor and Heather Jones. Videographers: Olivia Iannaccone, Danny Cifelli, and Kellie McGuinness.]