Kelsea Ballerini Is Becoming A Household Name Thanks To Taylor Swift
Thanks to Taylor Swift, Kelsea Ballerini may climb up the ranks as country music’s hottest new singer. The new blonde crooner has already become BFFs with the “Bad Blood” singer.
Back in March, Swift tweeted how much she was enjoying Ballerini’s self-titled album. The 21-year-old singer has been getting a lot of attention since then. Ballerini’s single “Love Me Like You Mean It” is already dominating the country music charts. Ballerini’s debut album, The First Time, also hit the Top Ten in Billboard’s Country Album Chart, as previously reported by the New York Post. She was also crowned as one of CMT’s Next Women of Country.
Driving around with the @KelseaBallerini EP on repeat.. SO lovely:) #yeahboy #lovemelikeyoumeanit
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) March 9, 2015
Kelsea and Taylor also became BFFs fast. Taylor invited the singer to a birthday party for her friend Abigail Lauren Anderson. It was also the first time that Kelsea met Taylor.
“That was the first time I hung out with Taylor. She’s awesome. We spent a lot of time in the photo booth and, at one point, me, Taylor and Hayley Williams from Paramore were having our own little dance party.”
What else is there to know about Kelsea Ballerini? She doesn’t write love songs based upon her own experience. Ballerini started writing love songs to deal with the pain over her parents’ divorce. The singer started writing about boys and her life-changing experiences at the young age of 12.
“I got tall, boys got cute, and my parents got divorced. It’s a subject that’s usually off limits for me because I don’t want to go there emotionally. I’ve only written one song about my parents’ divorce. It’s called ‘Secondhand Smoke’ and it’s on my album.”
The singer has already graced reality TV. Last month, Kelsea made an appearance on Bravo’s reality series Southern Charm. Kelsea dropped $5,001 for a date with bachelor Craig Canover during an auction. Unfortunately, the date never happened.
“That was a spur of the moment thing. In the end, I gifted the ‘date’ to a radio station to give away as a prize.”
Like Swift, Ballerini hustled her music to music executives in order to get her music noticed.
“It became clear that I was trying to write what was already on the radio. I learned early on that you have to do something that’s original and be yourself.”
However, Kelsea had to convince her mom to move to Nashville. She told her mom that she wanted to make the big move to “figure it out.”
“The music fell into my lap, and it became my haven. My mom saw me being very passionate and very serious about it. It wasn’t this thing I just liked because Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) and Taylor Swift did it. We were both ready for a change of scenery. It was this perfect storm.”
It seems to be working out in Kelsea Ballerini’s favor. Not only is her music dominating both country radio and the country music charts, but she also has Taylor Swift in her corner. Kelsea Ballerini is also slated to perform at the 2015 CMT Music Awards along with new musicians like A Thousand Horses, Chris Janson, Frankie Ballard, Maddie & Tae, and RaeLynn. Kelsea is also nominated for breakthrough video of the year.
[Images: Jason Merritt/Getty Images and Kelsea Ballerini/Instagram]
