Sitting in a car listening to her first single "Keep It Real" on the radio is a moment Noosa Singer Stephanie Brownlee will never forget.

Stephanie, 17, who finished Yar 12 at Sunshine Beach State High School last year, said she and Noosa-based manager Dennis Dunstan, who managed Fleetwood Mac, almost fell over each other in their rush to get to the radio when Stephanie's dad rang to say the song was on.

It was so amazing to hear it like that said Stephanie

While most of her school friends from last year are settling in to study or careers, Stephanie is preparing for the release of her debut album "Keep It Real" on May 1. She recorded the album in Nashville USA, fulfilling a dream.

She told the Noosa Journal in December 2008, just after she had placed third in the Australian Children's Music Foundation National Songwriting Competition, that she planned to move overseas to pursue her music career.

Since I was 14 I've known this is what I wanted to do" she said last week after arriving home in Noosa. When we were graduating last year a lot of the others said they didn't know what they wanted to do but I knew I was definitely going to do music.

She said recording the album in Nashville had been "the coolest thing in the world. I've always wanted to record in Nashville and I kept bugging Dennis about it" Stephanie said. "I said 'look how good the US dollar is' and he agreed

She and Dunstan searched for about a year to find the right songs for the album.

We didn't want anything that was just OK she said. We wanted to be 'WOW' I love this song.

She is now putting together a band for a tour in May and plans to perform in Noosa, including free shows at local schools as part of her tour.