Key Highlights:
Early Start: Started at 6, was aware of in Alberta’s country music scene as a teen.
Keith Urban Moment: Her unexpected outburst in 2016 was a defining moment in her career, revealing her potential as a songwriter
Chart successes: “Things My Mama Says” became her first Top 10 hit, achieving #1 status on Canadian country radio plays for several weeks in 2010.
Awards & Recognition: Multiple CCMA nominations including female artist of the year (2025) (2025).
Upward Mobile: With support from Big Loud Records, she stands on the cusp of becoming one of the most exciting young country artists Canada has to offer.
Introduction
Hailey Benedict: Country careers used to be judged by the first record. Benedict’s path is singles, stages, and a slow conversion from Alberta talent-show circuit to Big Loud’s Canadian pipeline. The question is whether that catalog hardens into a body of work before the industry files her as a promising radio act who never quite crossed.
Hailey Benedict Biography
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Hailey Benedict |
| Date of Birth | May 10, 2002 |
| Age | 24 years (as of 2026) |
| Birthplace | St. Albert, Alberta, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Genres | Country |
| Instruments | Guitar, Vocals |
| Years Active | 2014–present |
| Labels | Big Loud, Local Hay, Mercury, Republic, Sakamoto |
| Early Recognition | Won Country Music Alberta Fan’s Choice (2014); invited by Keith Urban to perform “Clean Slate” (2016) |
| Education | Graduated Paul Kane High School, St. Albert (2020) |
| Breakthrough | Debut single “Wanted You To” (2021) reached #25 on Canadian Country Airplay |
| Awards | CCMA Interactive Artist of the Year (2022); SiriusXM Top of the Country Winner (2023); Multiple CCMA nominations (2024–2025) |
| Major Singles | “Wanted You To” (2021), “Damn You July” (2023), “Things My Mama Says” (2024, Top 10 hit), “Carl Dean” (2025) |
| Performances | CMA Fest, Boots and Hearts, Calgary Stampede, Ryman Auditorium |
| Social Media | Over 250,000 TikTok followers; millions of views across platforms |
| Current Status | Rising star in Canadian country music; continues touring and recording |
From St. Albert Stages To A Sold-Out Arena
Hailey Benedict was born on May 10, 2002, and is from St. Albert, Alberta. She has been performing since she was six. In 2014 she won Country Music Alberta’s Fans’ Choice award and the youth Junior Talent Search at Big Valley Jamboree.
The origin story that follows her everywhere is the night Keith Urban pulled her onstage as a 14-year-old to play an original song for a sold-out Edmonton crowd. Billboard Canada dates the moment to 2016. Urban shared the clip. Attention arrived before a label did.
Analysis: Viral discovery at 14 is a mixed gift. It creates a narrative before an artist has a sound. Benedict spent the next several years answering that clip with actual records instead of living off it.
Hailey Benedict’s Net Worth
She’s not in Forbes, Bloomberg and other outlets that actually track wealth. The only number found in a search is an unsourced celebrity-blog estimate, not an audited or reported total, and it is a $200,000-$300,000 range on a Net Worth List. It is not to be taken as gospel.
The Independent Singles That Earned The Deal
In August 2021, without signing to a label, she dropped “Wanted You To.”It climbed up to No. 25 on the Billboard Canada Country chart. “Damn You July” was the next single and topped at No.49. In September 2023, she was the winner of SiriusXM’s Top of the Country contest. A year earlier, in 2022, the CCMA (Canadian Country Music Association) had awarded her the “Interactive Artist or Group of the Year”, a prize that recognizes the size of the online fan base of an unsigned artist.
In July 2022 she signed with GPS Artist Management. In September 2024, at Billboard Canada Women in Music in Toronto, she announced a recording and publishing deal with Nashville’s Big Loud Records and its Canadian imprint Local Hay, founded by Dallas Smith. Her first label single, “Things My Mama Says,” arrived October 4, 2024.
That song became her first Canada Country top 10 and peaked at No. 6. Her official biography says it was the most-played female Canadian-content song at country radio in 2025. Follow-up singles did not match that peak: “Carl Dean” reached No. 56 in 2025; “Party Without You,” released in 2026, has charted at No. 43. Those are confirmed airplay results, not a verdict on the songs.
Nashville Writing Rooms, Canadian Radio Math
Recently, Benedict appears as residing in Nashville while still being a Canadian-content producer at home. On her website, there is a listing for co-writing Dylan Conrique’s “Written in Stone.”She performed on major festival stages relevant to her music:main stage at Big Valley JamboreeBoots and Hearts in 2022Ponoka Stampede, CMA
The gap is the album. Public releases remain a string of non-album singles. In a late-2024 interview she said a debut album was a goal she did not want to rush. As of September 2026, that project has not been issued. That is a fact, not a slight. Labels often work country artists as radio singles first. The risk is that the songs never cohere into the “piece of work” she has said she wants.
What Her Career Is Testing
Canadian country has a familiar pipeline: provincial awards, CANCON spins, a U.S. imprint with a Canadian partner, then a bet on whether Nashville writing rooms change the voice or just the zip code. Benedict is inside that machine. Local Hay gives her a domestic champion. Big Loud gives her Music Row infrastructure.
Practical takeaway for listeners and bookers: judge the next 18 months by three things that are already measurable. Does she get another top 10 at Canada Country? Does a debut album appear with a consistent sound rather than another isolated single? And does the live billing keep moving from opener and festival mid-card toward rooms that do not need a headliner’s name on the poster?
The Keith Urban clip made her visible. “Things My Mama Says” made her programmable. The unfinished album is the part of the story that still belongs to her. If she treats that record as the argument instead of another chart cycle, Hailey Benedict stops being a prospect and starts being a catalog.
