Sharing the stage with a superstar

Former Selkirk girl gets shout-out from Luke Bryan   

By Austin Grabish, The Selkirk Record

Former Selkirk resident Paula Jehle-Turner has made a name for herself as a top-notch celebrity hair and makeup artist, and if any proof of that was needed, country superstar Luke Bryan gave it last Thursday.

Bryan called Jehle-Turner up on stage and gave Selkirk a big country shout out.

“He’s like, ‘I’m bringing you up on stage’, and he did,” Jehle-Turner said. 

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Jehle-Turner was at Bryan’s Wednesday night show with family when Bryan told her he’d be pulling her up to the stage.

Jehle-Turner lives in Nashville, Tenn. and has worked for Bryan for the last seven years.

She happened to be back in Selkirk last week visiting family so she took them to his two sold-out shows, and gave them a special backstage tour.

Jehle-Turner is a freelance hair and makeup artist whose clients include big artists like ZZ Top, George Jones, Tim McGraw, Kenny Rogers, Kenney Chesney, etc.

But “Luke Bryan’s probably my biggest client,” Jehle-Turner said.

Jehle-Turner preps clients for concerts, television shows, photo shoots, and red carpet walks.

She drifted off from Selkirk to Tennessee when she was in her early 20s, and has worked with celebrities for the better part of two decades.

Her first ‘big’ client was country artist Jolie & the Wanted.

“That was my first big break,” Jehle-Turner said.

Jehle-Turner is a Comp grad, but wasn’t part of the school’s hairstyling program. Instead, she pursued her hair and makeup learning at a school in Winnipeg after she graduated high school.

“I look back now and think, ‘jeez I don’t know why I didn’t do that’,” Jehle-Turner said.

She says she had a rough start in the industry, but after a few years made a name for herself.

She did it by working for American photographers for free in exchange for the opportunity to build her portfolio.

“I had a book in Winnipeg, but it was never big enough to take to the record labels in Nashville,” Jehle-Turner explained.

“I didn’t have an agent or anything like that, I just beat the pavement knocking on doors to different record labels.”

She credits her success in part to the relationships she’s been able to build with clients.

She said trust is a big part of the job and is what someone in her field needs to keep a client. 

“You’re in their private space, you’re in their face literally,” Jehle-Turner said. 

“I don’t have to show a book anymore. Thankfully I’m at a place where they just know my work by my clients.”

 -- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition May 14 2015 p.5