Artist of the Week: Kelsea Ballerini

CountryTown is proud to announce American country-pop singer-songwriter, Kelsea Ballerini as our Artist Of The Week, following the release of her new single Heartfirst.

Originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, Ballerini started singing in church and school choirs and taking dance lessons from three-years-old. She began songwriting writing poetry at 12, and learned guitar a year later. She moved to Nashville three years later. Before discovering country music, she was fond of pop stars like Britney Spears and classic singers like Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra.

After being signed to Black River Entertainment at 19, she released her debut self-titled EP in 2014 and her first studio album, The First Time, the following year. With the album's first three singles (Love Me Like You Mean It, Dibs and Peter Pan) all reaching number one on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, Ballerini became the first new female artist to send her first three releases to the top of the charts. The album also reached #33 on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart.

Her second studio album, Unapologetically, followed in 2017, producing the singles Legends, I Hate Love Songs, Miss Me More and This Feeling. It debuted at #7 on the US Billboard 200 Chart (the highest peak of her three albums) and later, received a ‘Best Country Album’ GRAMMY nomination. She has since gone on to have major chart-topping success, with 25 gold and platinum certifications from the RIAA to date, garnered multiple GRAMMY Award nominations, a long list of awards, all accumulating to more than four billion total streams.

Ballerini co-hosted the 2016 CMC Awards in Australia alongside Morgan Evans, whom she later married. Ballerini joined the 15th season of The Voice US as the fifth coach in 2018 and guest starred on the competition series Songland the following year. In 2019, she was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry by Carrie Underwood.

Her third and fourth studio albums, kelsea and ballerini, were both released in 2020. Ballerini temporarily filled in for Kelly Clarkson as a coach during Season 20 of The Voice US and co-hosted the CMT Music Awards with Kane Brown. That same year, she opened for the Jonas Brothers ‘Remember This’ tour and released her original book of poetry Feel Your Way Through.

In 2022, Ballerini was named the new face of CoverGirl. She will co-host the CMT Music Awards with Marvel Cinematic Universe actor Anthony Mackie on Monday, April 11 when it is filmed live from Nashville. As well as being up for three awards, Ballerini is pegged to perform.

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Keep up to date with Kelsea Ballerini on her Facebook page here.

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