About this Artist
Kelsea Ballerini is recognized as one of the most influential women in country music today and has consistently made history since the start of her career. Following the release of her debut album, she became the only female country artist to hit #1 with the first three consecutive singles from a debut album. She has platinum and gold album certifications, a career total of eleven gold and platinum singles certifications and has accumulated total streams exceeding 3 billion to date. Ballerini has garnered two GRAMMY® Award nominations, won two ACM Awards and has also received multiple career nominations from the ACM Awards, American Music Awards, CMA Awards, CMT Awards and the People’s Choice Awards. Most recently, she received a 2021 ACM Award nomination for “Female Artist of the Year” and was also welcomed as the Grand Ole Opry’s youngest current member.
Kelsea Ballerini released two acclaimed albums in lockdown last year. In March of 2020, she debuted her self-titled third album kelsea (Black River Entertainment). Her most personal effort to date, the album was met with critical praise, including from NPR who opined, “Kelsea Ballerini is definitely one of the most influential women in country right now… she’s defining the sound of the genre.” The debut single from the album, “homecoming queen?”, which the New York Times deemed “excellent,” was certified platinum, marking her fastest single to achieve this milestone yet. Her third single from the album, “hole in the bottle” recently reached Gold RIAA certification and earned Kelsea her sixth #1. Her latest single from the release, “half of my hometown” features a special guest vocal appearance from eight-time Entertainer of the Year and fellow East Tennessee songwriter/superstar Kenny Chesney. While under quarantine, Ballerini created the second half of that story, ballerini. On this album, she carefully deconstructed each song from the kelsea album and re-recorded everything with minimal accompaniment. Co-producing the release, Ballerini showed another side of herself with this reimagined take, highlighting the lyrical power of kelsea as she stripped all of the songs down to the bare essentials.