New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The country singer will release her new EP, Hopeful Romantic, later this year. The six-song offering, all of which Bailey co-penned, is about finding love—and all the ups and downs that come with it.
Bailey Hefley is a hopeful romantic, but you can't blame her for believing in happy endings. She's living proof that they exist. The 27-year-old native of
Little Rock, Arkansas, suffered debilitating seizures as a small child. The medication that saved her life also robbed her of her innocent enthusiasm for eight years and left her in a state of perpetual lethargy.
As a teenager, she overcame the condition and felt "awake" for the first time. Bailey was ready to tackle life as an active participant, not just an observer. That meant making up for lost time by developing real friendships, discovering boys, and riding horses, a passion that led to competitive barrel racing.
Nothing, however, has made more of an impression on her than music. In 2016, Bailey developed a friendship/mentorship with Jamie O'Neal, who scored a number of hits on the country charts in the early 2000s, including "There Is No Arizona," "
When I Think About Angels" and "Somebody's Hero."
Bailey will release her new EP, Hopeful Romantic, later this year. The six-song offering, all of which Bailey co-penned, is about finding love—and all the ups and downs that come with it. There are themes of broken trust in "Not Your Cinderella" and the mystery—and thrill—of the unknown in "Gotta Find Out," while the title track serves as an autobiographical lesson in the optimism of love.
The EP's lead single, "Dust on a Diamond," produced by O'Neal, will be released on April 19. The single tackles a failed relationship that Bailey hopes can comfort other young women who have found themselves in similar circumstances.
"I went through a really difficult breakup with a guy that I think a lot of girls can relate to," explains Hefley, who co-wrote the single with Marti Dodson and
Linda Greene, "I was so distracted on that first love interest, that I wasn't able to move on from him. It totally tore me apart. I was so broken and I didn't believe in myself. I would write little positive notes to myself in the margin and then stand up and go look in the mirror in my bathroom and just cry."
"Shortly after I went through that myself," Hefley continues, "I had a friend go through a very similar situation and I thought, 'Maybe that's why God put me through all that pain.' I kept wondering why I had to go through it. And then the thought dawned on me that maybe I can help more than just this other girl. Maybe I can write a song about it and help a lot of girls. Maybe I can write the song I wish I had when I was in that place."
Hefley describes the single as a "roller coaster ride of love," marked with the "depth" she developed as the optimistic young woman who overcame those childhood seizures. The name for 'Hopeful Romantic' was chosen because it describes the ups and downs of her love life over the years.
"There's something for every emotion you go through in a relationship. I want listeners to experience the passion that I wrote about," concludes Hefley, "from the sadder songs, they can relate to the way that I felt when I wrote them, and from the happy songs, maybe they can turn it up in the car and have some fun or dance. I want them to feel something."
