"I'm still on that high," she says. "It was crazy. There's some pictures of me on stage where I've never seen a smile that big on my face before. It's obnoxious how excited I was."

She left knowing one thing: She wanted to be on that stage again. So she went to work on a country career that brought her to Nashville with an O-1 Visa, given to artists with 'extraordinary ability.' In two years, she has co-written about 150 songs, working alongside writers such as Emmy-winner Chris Boardman and Niagara Falls native Dave Thomson, formerly of Wave.

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