From singing for New Iberia crowds, to singing for an international audience, local artist Keely Brennan, received four nominations at the Josie Music Awards (JMA), the world’s largest independent music award show.

Brennan is one of twelve finalists in the JMA All Ages All Genres Acapella Vocal Competition competing to win a chance to record and release a song with Cavalla Records and Indie Star Publishing.

Brennan received her primary nomination in Best Female Music Video of the Year for the video of her first single, “I’m Done Playing Cinderella.” The music video was released in February of this year, but Brennan started planning the video alongside videographer and director, Casey Cope, two years ago.

Brennan received nominations in multiple other categories including Female Rising Star of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year in the Rock Genre and Female Vocalist of the Year in Multi-Genre.

Despite her nominations, this will be her first time attending any independent music award.

Since the release of her first hit single, “I’m Done Playing Cinderella”, Brennan perpetually charted in Nu Louisiana’s Top 40 Country Radio Charts and has performed at venues across the Acadiana region.

Brennan’s father served in the military, so as a young girl she traveled across the U.S. until she started at Pesson Elementary School at five years old. By then, her father had retired, so they settled in New Iberia until her fifth grade summer, when her family moved to Lydia, Louisiana. An unfortunate divorce fortunately drove her back to New Iberia.

Brennan started performing at four years old, so by the time she came to New Iberia, she had performed across the United States. Growing up, she joined a group called Louisiana Kids, which gave her private vocal lessons under local studios which prepared them for scholarship competitions at regional, state and national levels. She performed with Louisiana Kids until the end of high school, and was officially considered an alumni.

Prior to the Pandemic, she found passion in sharing her experience and expertise with local youth, so she started a performing arts studio. She ended up with 27 students ranging in age from 3 years to high school age.

“People reached out. They knew I sang and wanted to know if I’d give their kid a lesson. They basically told me what songs they liked, and I basically taught them the ins and outs of the stage, how to perform it, stage presence, and we worked on perfecting vocal abilities on songs and making the numbers strong,” Brennan said.

She brought students who never performed for an audience, which included most of her students, to nursing homes in the area and conducted free shows.

“I did that growing up and I loved it, and it was also a way to get them comfortable in a very rookie crowd setting. I would tell them, ‘Most of them can’t even hear you, so what are you scared of?’” Brennan said.

When she thought her students were ready, she reached out to all the different events/venues where she performed as a child, including parades, cancer walks and Acadian Village. Her students started taking on more shows and Brennan decided to devote herself to this passion.

Then the Pandemic hit. At first, she tried teaching students over Zoom, but as the Pandemic swelled and the economy took a toll, she started losing students. People started losing their jobs, and suddenly music lessons weren’t a necessity anymore. Gradually, students started fading in numbers, until none remained. She tried teaching adults for a while, mostly instructing amateurs for casual singing and one-off gigs. That didn’t last long, however, and Brennan struggled to find a new source of income.

That’s when Brennan changed gears, and during the Pandemic, auditioned for The Voice. When she wasn’t selected, she started researching their audition process and realized small, local, established artists with original music usually receive an invitation from The Voice prior to filming.

“It’s easy for them to run their program because these people are already experienced. There’s less prepping they have to do with them to be really good vocalists on television,” Brennan said.

So Brennan decided to write a song. Writing the music itself was a breeze, but finding a credible producer was the challenge.

“I thought, I’m gonna waste my whole life trying to get on The Voice if I keep trying this way. So I said, I’m gonna write a song. I sat down on the couch and six minutes later ‘I’m Done Playing Cinderella’ was written,” Brennan said.

Less than a week after she released “I’m Done Playing Cinderella”, it was streaming in 17 different countries. From there, it grew and grew, and seven months later, Brennan learned the song had repeatedly made the Top 40 of Nu Louisiana Country Radio Charts.

“I didn’t even know it was playing on the radio because I listen to Spotify, YouTube and Pandora. It stayed in the top 40 for 11 consecutive months before dropping off, which I am so proud of,” Brennan said.

Five months after the release of her first single, Brennan had already laid out and recorded her first short album/EP, “Jane Doe”.

Unlike her album, the music video for “I’m Done Playing Cinderella” took significantly longer to film because they used actual festivals as film sets. They visited the Colfax Trucks Gone Wild Louisiana MudFest over multiple shoots, which proved difficult for the timing. By their second shoot, Brennan had a new sleeve tattoo and a different color of hair.

Casey Cope, Brennan’s director and videographer, was nominated alongside Brennan. By day, Cope manages Planet Fitnesses across the area, but by night, he’s worked independently in the video industry for six years. He went to school for digital design, and knew right away that filmmaking was where he wanted to go.

He started out producing videos for anyone who reached out, which usually included local artists and small businesses. Since working with Brennan, he’s had more exposure and can be more selective of his clients.

“In the past months, I’ve fortunately been able to be more selective with the clients that I choose as opposed to just taking whoever DMs me or inboxes me and immediately saying yeah. Some artists and some work is just not for me and that’s okay,” Cope said.

Cope thoroughly enjoyed working with Brennan because she was focused, hardworking, and already possessed an effective stage presence from years of performing.

“Keely is one client I put up on a pedestal. She’s just so good at what she does and has her stuff figured out and she knows what she wants. Keely, when we are alone, is a different person. You can definitely tell she thrives in front of an audience and that definitely correlates to on-screen. When I say we’re rolling, she is 110% all of the time, even if it’s the 100th take. She’s got it mastered for sure,” Cope said.

Cope said he realized quickly that they worked well together because their passions and backgrounds promoted effective cooperation between the two. While he’s skilled at providing ideas, his passion lies in directing.

“I love a client that comes and has a very vivid idea in their head of what they want and they relay that to me, and something in me just knows how to direct it best to visually represent it on screen. In that aspect, Keely and I fit together really well. She has all these ideas flowing in her head and puts them on paper, and I make it happen on screen,” Cope said.

Together, they have two more music videos planned with some dates already scheduled for filming. The first should be released by the end of December 2023 and the other comes in the first quarter of 2024.