Belles Found Her Voice at UNO. Now She’s Sharing It with the World as a Rising Country Star

🎟️ Get your tickets: Watch Belles LIVE in Omaha Sunday, Nov. 8 at Scott Conference Center (6450 Pine St.) as part of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Homecoming 2026 festivities. Doors open at 6 P.M., show begins at 6:30 P.M. Request Free Tickets

When Kelli Rachel Jones enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), she thought her future might involve a medical degree and a white coat.

A decade later with a Dolly Parton duet, a Grand Ole Opry performance, and a debut album under her belt all in the past year, she’ll return to her alma mater this Sunday, Nov. 8 for a homecoming week-closing performance as Belles, a rising country music star.

Going from studying chemistry during the day and playing Omaha bars at night to preparing for international tour dates wouldn’t have been a surprise to her UNO freshman self, she says. Her only question would be: “It took you that long?”

The Road to Nashville

Jones graduated from Omaha Westside High School early at just 16 years old. While high school provided the structure she needed at the time, she craved the added flexibility that came with being a college student in order to balance academics with performing at local venues.

After working to balance dueling passions for a career in medicine and a career as a musician, she decided to dedicate herself fully to music and moved to Nashville at 19. While there, she switched her major, took online courses through UNO, and completed a Bachelor of Multidisciplinary Studies degree with a concentration in Non-Profit Administration in 2019.

“UNO made it work for me because it was important to me and my family that I graduated from college, and I did,” she said. “I didn’t want to just drop out, so I was able to move to Nashville and start working on this dream while still finishing college for two years.”

Son of Jolene

From the outside looking in at the past year of her career, you might think Belles was an overnight success – far from it.

“I moved to Nashville when I was 19 and I didn’t really know anyone here. I just signed a lease online and went full-throttle. It was really hard for a long time and things were not looking good. I was, like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But for whatever reason, something kept me here and I just kept going.”

In between watching her friends in Omaha get married, establish careers, and buy houses, Jones started collecting little wins that gave her hope that maybe things would work out after all.

Then the big win came.

Almost eight years into fully committing to music, she wrote “Son of Jolene” in a friend’s living room in Nashville as a sequel to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” They recorded the track, and Jones’s publisher sent the track to Parton’s longtime band leader and primary producer Kent Wells, who said he’d play the song for Dolly.

“She ended up loving it so much that she wanted to be a part of it and sing on it, which was so incredible,” Jones said. “I still can't believe that really happened.”

In April 2026, Parton and Belles released the song as a duet, putting Belles on the country music map, and paying off nearly a decade of hard work. The song debuted at No. 51 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and has since amassed millions of listens across streaming platforms.

Never Giving Up

“It's important for me to tell that story and not just say, ‘I moved here and then I got a song with Dolly Parton.’ It’s been eight years, and really just grinding it out, and working really hard, trying everything that I could to make this happen, and it didn't come out of the air. It came from a lot of years of trying to figure it out. I just think never giving up has led to these moments.”

Three months later in July, Belles would become the first Nebraska woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Since it was founded 100 years ago as a Nashville radio broadcast, the Opry helped transform country music from a regional to a national genre and became a rite of passage to country music stardom. Legends like Parton, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, and Patsy Cline have all graced the Opry stage.

While on the Opry stage, Jones told the crowd about advice Parton imparted during their studio session.

“She said, ‘Follow your God Gut,’ and ‘There are a lot of chances in this life so don’t sacrifice your character or your beliefs for a chance, because there will always be another one,” Jones recalled on stage. “And that meant the world to me.”

A month later in August, Parton passed away, making “Son of Jolene” the final new song Parton would record in her storied career. It added to Parton’s legacy as one of country’s defining voices, and at the same time opened a new chapter for Belles as an emerging talent for a genre charting a path forward after the loss of one of its standard bearers.

“She was everything you would think she would be and more,” Jones said. “She was so kind to me, and we had so much fun. It’s indescribable, that feeling, because I grew up idolizing Dolly with her music constantly being played in our house. I just couldn’t believe it was real. Just getting to sit down and have a normal conversation with your idol is something I don’t think a lot of people get to experience in their life. She was so generous with her time and advice – it's just moments like that I will truly never forget and I’m so grateful I got to spend that time with her.”

A UNO Homecoming

Belles released her debut album Midwestern in October and will tour through the fall through the U.S. with stops throughout the south, Las Vegas, and the west coast before embarking on a European tour in the spring.

In the past year, Jones estimates she’s spent just four weeks at her home in Nashville, bouncing from London to California to New York City and everywhere in between.

“It’s exhausting at times,” she said. “I miss my family a lot, but this is everything I wanted and I prayed for so I’m very happy about it.”

Her performance at UNO marks the conclusion of the university’s homecoming week and a homecoming for Jones, returning to the city where it all began.

At her performance, there may be students in the crowd going through the same balancing act she did years ago of working toward a college degree and a creative career and making difficult choices along the way.

“I think at the end of the day, you have to do some soul searching and figure out what is going to make you happy,” Jones said. “That's really what it came to when I was at UNO, is the only thing that was going to make me happy was doing music, and that's what I did. I'm so glad that I made that decision, but it definitely came with a lot of sacrifices and hard days and hard years. I think that's one of the great things about UNO is just having the space and the time to really figure out what you want.”