The 23-year-old has had several other opportunities for mass exposure, whether competing as a contestant on "Canadian Idol," singing the national anthem before a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park or striking up songwriting partnerships during a stint in Nashville.
Still, she's primarily on the outside looking in. The country-pop singer has assembled a decade of professional singing experience at a young age, and that's only taught her how difficult this industry can be.
"I'm not getting my hopes up this time," the affable Keith said in a recent interview. "I've had a lot of opportunities before but this industry is so -- you just never know. It could be great news one day, and the next day: 'Sorry, it's not happening anymore.' So I've kind of gotten used to that over the years.
"So when I found out I was going to be going to the Grammys -- it's a (big) opportunity.... But I'm not just going to expect something to come out of it."
But that isn't to say that Keith isn't excited for her brush with Grammy glamour.
She earned the prize by winning Hitlab's emerging talent competition, which invited unsigned artists to post one of their own compositions online. The winner was decided by fan votes (and Keith did her best to stack the deck in her favour, admitting: "I was going crazy trying to get everyone I knew to vote for me.")
The prize? Keith will stroll down the red carpet prior to Sunday's gala on the arm of hit-making R&B crooner Akon after singing a 30-minute set earlier in the weekend at a Grammy-sanctioned event.
She says she's prepared. She went to Toronto to secure a killer dress, a navy-blue strapless number adorned with Swarovski crystals -- "the most expensive dress I've ever bought," she admits -- and has received her marching orders (literally, in this case) for navigating the red carpet from a Los Angeles P.R. pro.
"There's going to be tons of flashes, he said, and it can be kind of stressful -- especially for me, being from Canada, not experiencing anything like that before. I'm completely out of my element."
But as far as the performance showcase goes? Well, she's been preparing for that for nearly as long as she can remember.
Keith started taking singing lessons at the tender age of six, after -- if you can believe it -- asking her parents to give her the vocal education as a pragmatic Christmas present. Though there's no one in her family with a musical background, Keith used to wander around the house singing and found she had a skill for memorizing lyrics.
She landed her first paid gig at 13 and had success with "Canadian Idol" when she was 16, making it through to the Top 30. But it wasn't exactly a positive experience.
"It was absolutely terrible," she recalled. "I was the youngest one there. I had to stay at the hotel with my parents. I was the only one out of the Top 50 who was in the hotel with their parents, so that sucked. ... I found it was more of a modelling competition, to be honest with you.
"I was under the impression that it was a vocal contest, but it was really based more upon marketability.... It definitely opened my eyes a little bit to the industry."
Soon afterward, she was accepted to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. Though she left after her third year, the arts school was "sort of the rocket launcher for me," Keith said. She met her manager there and managed to land those gigs singing the U.S. anthem before Celtics and Red Sox home games -- though she almost turned the latter opportunity down.
"I'm not a huge sports fan, so ... when they called, I was like: 'Oh, I've got a test tomorrow, I don't know. I don't even know the American national anthem.' And then my friends said, 'Are you kidding me? You have to do it.' I was like, 'Well, they're not paying me, so I don't know.'
"But then I called my dad. And he was like: 'You better get your ass over to Fenway Park.' It was incredible."
After leaving Berklee, Keith headed to Nashville in an effort to refine her songwriting.
As a country singer, she figured, there's no better place in the world to be than the Tennessee musical hotspot. Of course, thousands of others harbouring similar dreams felt the same way.
"I've got blond hair and blue eyes. Every waitress, every bartender, every girl there is a blond-haired, blue-eyed country singer, trying to sing the exact same thing you are," she said.
"I don't know if it made me better, but it definitely made me more competitive."
It's with that spirit that Keith will approach the Grammys.
She still lives at home with her parents in Hamilton, scraping together spending money by doing odd office jobs for her dad, a prosecutor in traffic court. She feels far removed from the slick glitz of Hollywood -- "it's going to be a big change-up from the Hammer," she laughs -- but that's only providing more motivation to dig in during her trip.
Refreshingly plain-spoken and forthright, Keith doesn't come naturally to the sort of dogged self-promotion sometimes required to make connections in the entertainment industry. So she'll have to work a little harder.
"I really want to try to shine, I really want to try to sing my best," she said of her musical showcase. "But I think a little more important than performing is just the opportunity to network. You know, just be that annoying kid who's like: 'Here's my demo, here's my card, listen to me!'
"And I hate doing that. But sometimes you get put in a situation where you sort of have to shamelessly promote yourself and lose your pride for a bit. And I feel like it'll be a really good opportunity to meet a lot of producers and record-label execs that will have an opportunity to hear me.
"Hopefully, something will come out of it -- that's my ultimate goal."
But she's still preparing herself for the possibility that nothing will come of this, and she'll come away with a gorgeous dress and some gilded Grammy memories.
Which is why she's glad this is happening now. There was a time in the not-so-distant past that Keith would have believed an opportunity like this one was a sure ticket to stardom.
She's learned so much since then.
"(A couple years ago) I would've been like: 'Oh, I'm going to the Grammys! And getting famous. And getting a record deal. Wait for my album in stores,"' she said, laughing.
"I'm going to really take it all in. Take every moment in. Because I know how rare the opportunity is. Whereas before, if I were to be 16 or 17, I don't think I really would have an understanding -- I think I would be too caught up in the moment to take in the experience.
"I'm glad it's happening to me now."
Brian O'Neal || Public Relations
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