The ambitious Tekapo talent and former Wanaka resident was guest support act for Creedence Clearwater Revisited in February and performed as part of the welcome for China Southern Airlines at Millbrook resort last year.
The country girl's star continued to rise and Bex showed off her powerful voice, stage presence and collection of songs, both original and covers, before 100 glamorously dressed friends and relatives in her home village of Lake Tekapo on Saturday night.
The occasion was the launch of her debut album Heart that Talks, inspired by thoughts and feelings she jotted down over the years in a notebook she carried.
Some tracks were co-written with pianist Stephen Small, who recorded and performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and the New Zealand String Quartet.
The album was produced by Brady Blade (Brooke Fraser, Annabel Fay) in Auckland and Louisiana.
Guests on Saturday night clamoured to watch again and again the new video for Bex's up-tempo country tinged pop hit-in-waiting Where Ever I Go.
The high production value video stars Bex and was filmed at Branches High Country Station, near Queenstown, last week. Bex mustered and tailed sheep at Branches, which brother David managed.
The clip was expected to be posted on YouTube and the album would be available through the Bex Murray website next week.
Entertainer and family friend Frankie Stevens was master of ceremonies. He told the audience they were the first to hear he was married the weekend before.
Interviewed the morning after the night of music, dancing, fine food and a charitable auction Bex planned, the 25-year-old said the party was "awesome" and she was impatient to work on her next LP.
"It's taken me two years to do it and I've learned so much from this album. The next one will be spectacular," she said, laughing.
"I want to be touring with a big name this year and release a second album by the end of this year."
An early passion for performing as a child, including recording songs on a tape recorder in her bedroom at the age of 6, led to her mother, Carolyn, taking Bex countless miles from Lake Tekapo to Timaru each week for years for tap-dancing and ballet tuition, then singing lessons with Vicki McLeod.
The 15-year-old Bex specialised in drama and music at boarding school in Christchurch, where she took more singing lessons from Malcolm McNeil and Dame Malvina Major.
She performed with the New Zealand Royal Ballet and sang alongside Jackie Clarke, Frankie Stevens and the late Rob Guest.
Bex also performed national anthems at several international sporting events, regularly at charity functions and tributes such as at the function for former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick.
She moved to Auckland to work with top talent spotter Gray Bartlett, who mentored Hayley Westenra, Elizabeth Marvelly and Yulia, while working as a nanny and a barista and playing free gigs.
The Kiwi battler said she was determined to take her career forward, and travelled from New Zealand to South Africa on Monday, on the way to London with a two-year visa and a list of contacts in the music industry.
"I've been overseas since I was a teenager, but I've got used to be being home after five months. My parents are so supportive and I wouldn't be able to do it without them."
