Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon took to Instagram today to share an inspirational and impromptu snapshot taken backstage at a country music concert. The concert, which took place Friday night at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, was headlined by country music superstar Keith Urban and rising star Kelsea Ballerini.
According to the Tennessean , during a brief intermission between songs, Urban invited both his wife, Nicole Kidman, and Reese Witherspoon on stage to greet the crowd. Greeting a few lucky fans after having been thrust unexpectedly into the spotlight, the veteran actress cracked wise.
“If I’d known I was coming on stage, I would have worn a different outfit.”
Witherspoon allegedly drove from North Carolina to Nashville in order to make the concert date.
In the picture shared amongst Witherspoon’s massive social media following — her Instagram account claims 14.1 million followers — the actress can be seen leaning into Keith Urban, her trademark coy smile spread wide across her face. Platinum blond curls frame her angular visage, and a fitted black dress with slightly frilly embellishment hugs her frame before flowing out at the hips. Urban offers up an easy, genuine smile as his naturally laid-back personality shines through the frame, still wearing his stage clothes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm60kKljAq0/?taken-by=reesewitherspoon
Joining the pair is an accomplished young country music artist who has been making a name for herself over the course of the past few years, Kelsea Ballerini. Blending pop stylings with traditional country heart, Ballerini is the very picture of style in the Instagram snapshot. Wearing a plunging V-neck dress that appears once attractive and demure, Ballerini gives a genuine and ecstatic grin to the camera. In her left hand can be seen what appears to be a lemonade, though whether it is a virgin drink or full-strength is unclear.
The Instagram share highlights some of the work that Reese Witherspoon has been conducting recently in attempts to raise the profile of female contributors to the arts, which is incidentally the focus of her newest show, Shine On With Reese . The talk show debuted on the middle of last month to great acclaim, with a very recent episode talking specifically about the country music scene and the dearth of contemporary female artists on the big stages, according to a report from Rolling Stone .
Witherspoon was joined by another young woman making a name for herself in the country music business in her Nashville-centric episode — Kacey Musgraves. On the episode in question, Musgrave made her position on the gender imbalance in the genre crystal clear.
“If you look at the Top 40 you might see three women,” said Musgraves during an on-air discussion with Witherspoon. “One thing I’ve experienced as a woman on this path is I can be meeting the same radio station people or people in the industry as a male artist but there’s an extra pressure on me to be accommodating or nice.”
