On the way to the CMA performance rehearsal, country star Kelsea Ballerini caught up with Audacy to talk about her latest and impending performances.
LISTEN NOW: Kelsea Ballerini at the 2023 CMA Awards
Kelsea Ballerini went from performing in her hometown to prepping for the Country Music Association Awards in just two days. Chatting with Audacy's Sabrina From Queens, it seems the singer-songwriter is in a whirlwind of emotions, but not because she’s busy. Rather, she explained that her last performance was at the same arena where she saw her first concert. “That arena in Knoxville is where I saw my first concert. I saw Britney Spears there, I think it was like 11 or 12” she recalled. “You feel so small and you're watching this person on stage and you're like, oh my God, like that's Britney Spears and she's on stage in the same room I'm in. You know, like that was my feeling of going to shows when I was a kid.’"
“To be able to like completely 180 and be the one on stage in that same room, it was just really, really emotionally overwhelming and it was like one of the biggest accomplishments of my life truly.” That accomplishment comes without mention of her own CMA nominations for this year, and her upcoming performance at the ceremony.
Ballerini is up for two huge awards: Album of the Year for her second EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat and Best Female Vocalist of the Year. Both CMA nominations are quite fitting, as Ballerini has reclaimed 2023 as a re-awakening from her divorce from ex, Morgan Evans. Whether or not she expects to win, Kelsea gave no hints on the CMA awards themselves, admitting she hadn’t even planned her outfit yet. “It is not a lie, girl. I am behind, but I will pick [an outfit] today and I'm rehearsing today and it will be what it will be” she joked, before adding that we’ll see a “big” pop of color.
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As for her performance? Ballerini said it may take a bit of pretending to perform as a full country star. “I have to fully dissociate when I go on stage,” she admitted, “because I'm like thinking about, you know, my mom is there, my dad's there, my friends are there, my whole team's like, I'm so overwhelmed that I just need to go on stage and be 'Hannah Montana.' So I do that.”
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Catch tomorrow’s 57th Annual CMA Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning, at 8/7c on ABC and available the next day on Hulu. Find more of Audacy's CMA Awards coverage at audacy.com/cma.