{"id":75809,"date":"2026-04-06T07:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T11:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/?p=75809"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:12:27","slug":"utcs-bella-lam-balances-college-and-a-growing-country-music-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/utcs-bella-lam-balances-college-and-a-growing-country-music-career\/","title":{"rendered":"UTC\u2019s Bella Lam balances college and a growing country music career\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bella

Bella Lam performed with her band at UTC’s 2025 Homecoming tailgate. Photo by Ray Soldano.<\/p><\/div>\n

Country music artist Bella Lam is shooting for the stars.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 23-year-old singer-songwriter from Jackson, Tennessee, has amassed more than 80,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram. She performs in venues across the Southeast, building a name for herself on stage and online.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, she is a student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, pursuing a degree in music with a focus on vocal performance and a communication minor.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She went from full-time to part-time student last fall when her singles \u201cTears in My Tequila\u201d and \u201cTake It Out On My Guitar\u201d started to gain traction.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started booking gigs every single weekend,\u201d Lam said. \u201cIt started getting busier.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite spending less time on campus, she still \u201cbleeds blue and gold,\u201d she said. She also loves living in Chattanooga and its music scene.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very eclectic,\u201d Lam said. \u201cIt\u2019s <\/span>of course<\/span> where I started doing live music. I\u2019m very partial and biased, but I love it a lot. All the people are very nice and very welcoming.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another positive of living in Chattanooga as a musician, Lam said, is that it\u2019s situated \u201cright in the middle of everything.\u201d She can easily make it to shows in Atlanta, Knoxville and Nashville without making serious travel plans.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s how she was able to play nearly 100 shows last year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI probably get one to three weekends off,\u201d she said. \u201cI play in Virginia. I play in Northern Georgia. I play in Alabama and Nashville. I play all over Tennessee.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

****************<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/b><\/a> to listen to \u201cTears in <\/span>My<\/span> Tequila.\u201d Watch the music video for \u201cTake It Out On My Guitar\u201d <\/span>here.<\/span><\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

****************<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of what Lam had planned for her life, music was going to be a part of it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty much born into music,\u201d she said. \u201cMy dad is a doctor, but he has a medical degree and a music degree. I have cousins in Australia, and they\u2019re doctors who do music on the side.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lam said her grandfather, who immigrated to the United States from China, was a violinist who wanted his family to be \u201cwell-rounded\u201d and appreciate music as he did.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of my cousins play, my parents play, my siblings play,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019m the only one that really wanted to pursue it professionally.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though she is a country artist, Lam is an appreciator of every music genre, which she said is important to staying dynamic as a musician.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what genre, as far away from your genre as it is, you need to listen to everything and pull a little inspiration from everything,\u201d she said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Growing up, she was a big fan of alternative rock bands like All Time Low and Five Seconds of Summer. She also listened to heavy metal and classic rock with her dad, which is why she incorporates heavy guitar and a \u201cfull band sound\u201d into her own music.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, her favorites include Megan Maroney, Ella Langley, Lainey Wilson and Miranda Lambert. She is proud that their styles shine through in her music.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding her own sound, she said, did not come easy. It took embracing her southern roots to find her country twang. The first few songs she recorded in high school had more of a pop-ballad vibe.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that I was Tennessee-born and raised,\u201d she explained, \u201cbut I was still trying to reject the country music thing. <\/span>I feel like as soon as I embraced that this is who I am, I realized I actually do really love this.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started to find who I was as a musician and who I am now, but it took those releases to start being like, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m a country artist.\u2019\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Performing her music on a stage is what Lam described as one of the best parts of being a music artist. <\/span>It\u2019s<\/span> an opportunity to spend time with her bandmates.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we play for an hour and a half, sometimes we play for four and a half hours,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so tiring, but it\u2019s really fulfilling. I know this after a good show when I\u2019m getting into bed, about to go to sleep and I\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, this is what I love to do and I feel so fulfilled by doing this.\u2019\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2024, she played a show at the Bluebird Cafe\u2014a small but famous club in Nashville that has hosted songwriters such as Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, Vince Gill and Faith Hill.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI skipped class that day,\u201d Lam said. \u201cMy professor was totally fine with it. I brought her back a T-shirt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bella<\/p>\n

Last year, she performed at UTC\u2019s Homecoming tailgate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of this campus. I\u2019m always like \u2018Go Mocs\u2019 everywhere I go and I was so incredibly blessed to get that opportunity, and it was such a fun show,\u201d she said. \u201cScrappy was out there dancing and my professors came out to watch. Classmates, friends and people I\u2019d never met before who were just <\/span>there<\/span> to support their friends or family in the game.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that UTC is such a great community and I felt so blessed to perform for that community.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She described UTC\u2019s role in her confidence as a musician. The music program is what taught her to \u201cperform well.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In her freshman year, she performed in end-of-semester <\/span>finals<\/span> in front of her peers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had barely started performing,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was scary, and I think that really helped me get through the hurdle of stage fright.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The UTC music program wasn\u2019t Lam\u2019s first exposure to classical music training.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She learned piano and cello at a young age. She took classical lessons and performed in musical theater and school choir. Her first recital in middle school was \u201cThink of Me\u201d from <\/span>\u201cThe Phantom of the Opera.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, as a commercial country artist, she faces an interesting hurdle in the program.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey teach you how to keep your vowels really round. If you\u2019re in country music, they don\u2019t want to hear your vowels. They want to hear your accent,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lam said her professors are supportive of her and understand the chaotic nature of pursuing a career in music. She is especially <\/span>appreciative of Dr. Kenyon Wilson, a professor of applied tuba at UTC, who oversaw her practicum that allowed<\/span> her to record her music in Nashville.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilson described Lam as \u201cone of our best success stories of the BA in music degree.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe BA allows her to hone her musical side, but then also get into the business side of that,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve really enjoyed aboutwatching Bella\u2019s <\/span>journey.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been<\/span> great going to local dive bars and supporting my students. Bella is out there singing and just having a blast.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said he recognizes the difficulty of students chasing commercial success like Lam is. Compared to future band directors or teachers with a more established career field, Lam will have to create her own career.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBella has had to blaze some trails with that,\u201d he said. \u201cIn that regard, she\u2019s an outlier, but she\u2019s very successful so far.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lam is extremely aware of the social media demands that come with trying to make it in a highly competitive industry.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By posting almost daily on TikTok and Instagram\u2014and hosting regular livestreams\u2014she\u2019s edging into influencer territory, something that\u2019s often necessary to promote music today.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media is really hard,\u201d Lam said. \u201cI used to look at my numbers and be like, \u2018Oh, this video didn\u2019t perform well as this one.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like if you hyper fixate on that instead of finding stuff that you love to post that will get your music further, you\u2019re going to continue to spiral and hate it … As a musician, if you\u2019re not finding ways to love it, you\u2019re just going to not want to do it. And I think it\u2019s really important that you love it.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lam said staying grounded in that mindset is what keeps her moving forward through the long weekends, the constant posting and the uncertainty that comes with building a career on her own terms.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe dream for me has always been making music that would reach as many people as possible,\u201d she <\/span>said, \u201cand<\/span> being a star so that I can change people\u2019s <\/span>lives<\/span> with the music that I make and that I love.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more<\/h4>\n

UTC Department of Music<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

How to apply<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Country music artist and UTC student Bella Lam is shooting for the stars. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter from Jackson, Tennessee, has amassed more than 80,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram. She performs in venues across the Southeast, building a name for herself on stage and online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2000,"featured_media":75827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[661,70,15,3,122493,7712,12777,64],"tags":[126920,127069,127079,127073,129,12863,7702,124776,123829],"class_list":{"0":"post-75809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-campus","9":"category-community","10":"category-education","11":"category-faculty-and-staff","12":"category-music-college-of-arts-sciences","13":"category-news","14":"category-students","15":"tag-bella-lam","16":"tag-goal-1-2-enhance-learner-success-strategic-plan-2030","17":"tag-goal-1-4-alumni-development-and-engagement-strategic-plan-2030","18":"tag-goal-4-3-diverse-revenue-streams-strategic-plan-2030","19":"tag-homecoming","20":"tag-kenyon-wilson","21":"tag-live-music","22":"tag-mocs-learn-mocs-do-mocs-lead","23":"tag-operating-with-excellence","24":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nUTC\u2019s Bella Lam balances college and a growing country music career\u00a0 | UTC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Country music artist and UTC student Bella Lam is shooting for the stars. 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