Bella Taylor Smith, The Voice Australia Winner Who Chose Ministry

Bella Taylor Smith was 17 when she got saved at a summer camp during a worship service and realized that singing was not just something she could do — it was what she was made for. Years later, when a Voice Australia application popped up on her computer during Covid lockdowns, she felt the Lord prompting her to apply. She won. And then, rather than chasing the biggest mainstream opportunity that win could have opened, she and her husband moved to Nashville to make Christian music full time.

Worship, the local church, and music made for your living room: Bella shares the story behind her new EP For the Home, the companion piece to her earlier project For the House, and why she wanted to make two distinctly different kinds of music — one filled with scripture for the local church, and one intimate and honest enough to fill a home with the Lord's presence. She also tells the genuinely strange story of winning The Voice Australia by watching the pre-recorded finale on her then-boyfriend's parents' couch, the difference between Australian and American food ingredients, and what it means to be a worship leader whose goal is to disappear so the congregation can find Jesus.

Highlights

• Why she felt the Lord prompting her to enter The Voice Australia even though Christian music was always the plan
• The bizarre Covid finale where all four finalists pre-recorded four different endings and she found out she won watching TV
• Why she made two separate EPs, For the House for the local church and For the Home for intimate listening
• How she got saved at 15 at a summer camp worship service and knew immediately that was where she was meant to sing
• What it has been like to move from Australia, where Christianity is not culturally embedded, to the Christian music world of Nashville
• Why she believes a worship leader's job is to be as invisible as possible and simply connect people to heaven
• What her husband's production philosophy of recording with live musicians means for the intimate organic sound of her music
• Her honest take on Australian versus American food and why high fructose corn syrup is actually banned in Australia

Resources / Links / CTA

• 🌐 Bella Taylor Smith website: https://www.bellataylorsmith.com
• 📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bella.taylor
• 🎵 EP: For the Home
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