In publicity material, the 24-year-old blonde bombshell is kitted out in a glittering gold frock while lights float from her hands and hair like ephemeral diamonds.
In the flesh, she's unfussy and fresh-faced; unmade up, straight off the farm in drainpipe jeans and singlet top.
The former Lake Tekapo girl moved to Wanaka several years ago, where she worked at Ritual Cafe by day and sang with friends in local shows and cabarets by night.
Just over two years ago, she and some buddies pooled their vocal talents for John Perriam's "Bendigo Musterers" team on the TV One show, One Night Only.
That show done and dusted, Murray headed to the bright lights of Auckland.
Not quite a year later, Murray was profiled extensively by North and South magazine reporter Donna Chisholm, as she explored the cut-throat entertainment industry and revealed just how hard wannabe singers must work.
The magazine revealed Murray had borrowed $45,000 from a family trust to obtain a contract with Gray Bartlett.
He is one of New Zealand's most prominent talent spotters and launched Haley Westenra, Elizabeth Marvelly, Will Martin and Yulia.
At first, Murray was singing cover songs at weddings and corporate functions while people were eating; her strong, beautifully pitched voice barely raising an eyebrow.
But by January this year, Murray was opening for the Hollies' New Zealand tour in Tauranga and performing for 4000 people with aplomb.
The set included some of her own songs, co-written with a producer.
Her contract with Bartlett is now over, Murray said in an interview with the Otago Daily Times this month, and she is forging her own path, although Bartlett was "still lining up things here and there".
"Working with Gray Bartlett was awesome.
"He set me up with a whole lot of different gigs, such as for Sean Fitzpatrick, Robert F Kennedy.
"And I met Trelise Cooper, who now dresses me for my shows... It has been an exciting couple of years and this year it seems to be getting even more exciting," she said.
Murray says Bartlett emphasised networking above all else. He helped her make contacts with singing tutors, songwriters, producers and musicians, but always told her it was up to her to keep in touch, to email and ring people and chase further introductions, she said.
She recently did just that at a gig for up to 40 United States company chief executives and their partners, who were on a holiday retreat at the Branches Station in Cardrona Valley.
Murray's brother, James Murray, manages the station for Highland Resorts Ltd, a company associated with Stephen Fisher and Stephen Tindall, of Auckland, and William Lipner, David Teece and David Thomson, of the United States.
The chief executives had become friends over many years and some had since retired.
But they all enjoyed doing something together every year, she said. Some went gold-mining, others went hunting - Murray enjoys hunting too - and at night, she serenaded them.
It was "very private, very personal", she said.
After her gig, she was asked if she knew Garth Brooks or Faith Hill, which made her laugh.
And she met a person who promised to introduce her to a friend - songwriter Paul Simon.
"I would love to meet him. They so casually say these things as though it is not a big deal," she marvelled.
Murray finds most of her punters love it when she sings Dusty Springfield or Bonnie Raitt songs.
They also like her originals, reworked into a bluesy feel, she said.
Murray prefers to write lyrics and leave melodies to her co-writers.
"I just have a little book I carry around with me and when something pops into my head, I write it down. Later I will pull it all together," she said.
Last August, she travelled to Stockholm to write songs with a producer there.
She was invited by Brady Blade, who produced debut albums for Brooke Fraser and Annah Mac.
From that experience, she has a "whole heaps of songs" and is now working on her first album.
"I've got enough material but there's still some things that I need to do. I don't want to put out anything that's not perfect. The Swedish songs are being mixed in Auckland now," she said.
Through Blade, she met Bernard Fowler, a backing singer for The Rolling Stones, who helped pen some of her songs and sings with Murray on some of her recordings.
Earlier, in July, she was in Wyoming for an Independence Day gig (as a 17-year-old, she had worked for four months on a Wyoming ranch).
Towards the end of last year, she performed in Auckland at the New Zealand Variety Show with Bonnie Tyler and Leo Sayer.
She has been making a living "slowly", but has also been looking after other people's children and helping her parents run Te Awa Lodge at Lake Hawea.
Nor has she abandoned bread-and-butter gigs for glitter and sequins.
On March 19, she will sing at "Music in the Mountains" at Glenmore Station, Lake Tekapo.
She has also been making music again with old friends Wanaka musicians Rob Caig and Bernie Rillstone-Caig. Their band performed with her at the Branches Station gig and intend to do more gigs with her around the South Island.
Murray intends to stay in Wanaka until the winter, not the least because her boyfriend of several years, builder William Kennedy, lives in the town.
Then she will move on to the bright lights again.
"This year will be the year I get an album out," she said.
Murray does pinch herself sometimes when she thinks of how lucky she's been.
As a 15-year-old, she was tap dancing and singing in leotards at Caroline Bay, during Timaru's annual summer carnival, and never imagined she'd be living the dream.
"There are good days and bad days.
"Sometimes I sigh and think "What am I doing?" I get a good run, and then nothing. Then the Americans say "Can we help you with your lucky break?"
About Bex
• Age: 24
• Raised: Lake Tekapo
• Singing background: From the age of 10, Murray was taught by Vicki McLeod (Timaru). As an older teenager, she studied for a year with Dame Malvina Major (Christchurch) and also took instruction from tutors at the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Arts, though she was not enrolled at the school. In Wanaka, she hooked up with Rob Caig and Bernie Rillstone-Caig and in Auckland, she took songwriting lessons with Caitlin Smith.
