From the moment she released her debut single "Love Me Like You Mean It," it didn't take long for the country music world to embrace Kelsea Ballerini with open arms. The singer-songwriter is everything a modern country star should be: hip, stylish, unafraid to incorporate pop into her records (and discuss it openly, rather than shy away from the "p" word), and most importantly, supremely talented. With just two albums to her credit, she's already managed to chart nine Top 40 hits on the genre-specific Hot Country Songs listing, with most of those breaking into the top 10. She was immediately heralded as a member of the fresh crop of exciting talents shaking up Nashville (along with fellow millennial superstar Maren Morris, to name just one standout), and she was even nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy.
I recently spoke with Ballerini at Amazon Music's New York City Unboxing Prime Day event (where the country-pop chart-topper performed on the same lineup as Julia Michaels, Alessia Cara and Ariana Grande) about her rise to stardom, new music and breaking through in country as a woman in a genre typically ruled by men.
Hugh McIntyre: We’re now eight months out from your second album, right?
Kelsea Ballerini: It was released in November, so how long ago was that? I don't even know. It's new still.
McIntyre: It is still new...although, in the world we live in now...
Ballerini: I know. It's crazy. Luckily, in country, it's a little bit slower so you can squeeze the life out of albums a bit more. But yeah, it's already time to start thinking about the next one, which is crazy.
McIntyre: I was going to ask if you have plans to keep promoting it? What's the rest of the plan for album two?
Ballerini: I think we'll add a couple more songs.
McIntyre: Release a deluxe edition?
Ballerini: Yeah, soon. And then, yeah, I'm starting to write for record three. I'm on tour with Keith Urban, so I'm having some of my fave writers come out and ride the bus. During the day, we write songs and at night, I go open up for Keith.
McIntyre: Really? Wow, what a day.
Ballerini: Yeah! I'm so in that mindset when I'm on the road. I'm thinking about what's working, what they react to, what they don't, what I'm feeling, what I'm going through. It's like I'm in this bubble headspace of music. So it's a good time for me to get it all done at once.
McIntyre: What is working? What is resonating?
Ballerini: You know, I've found that there's a lot of power in whatever you're feeling. What I mean by that is, I feel like people now make you feel like you can be happy, but not too happy. You can be sad, but not too sad. I’ve found a lot of power in just being the extreme emotion I'm feeling and writing with that perspective in mind and not sugar-coating stuff for the sake of what's commercial.
McIntyre: That's fair. Speaking of commercial, the album was your highest charting on the country charts and on the general charts, and then singles-wise, your debut performed better.
Ballerini: Yeah, I guess so. The first record had four singles, three number ones, one number three. And this record's still new, so we've had one number one and now we're on “I Hate Love Songs,” which is at like 30-something, but it's still climbing.
McIntyre: Are the charts something you care about?
Ballerini: 100%. Yeah, I do. Only because I credit a lot of my career to radio. They jumped on board with my stuff at a time where there weren't a lot of females on the radio. They decided to champion me. They're patient with me, I'm patient with them. We have a really good working relationship. We'll definitely get a couple more singles off this record.
McIntyre: Good! You came up at the same time as a few really exciting female singer/songwriters in the country world. We hadn't had that for a while. How did that feel?
Ballerini: It's cool. It's like we're in this class. It's cool because we have times where we hang out or we see each other and it's this unspoken bond of like, “We're doing the impossible right now.” It's really cool.
McIntyre: It was good to finally see it break up a bit because it had been so male-dominated for so long.
Ballerini: Yeah, I think it was just a trend, just like anything in music. Sometimes there's a lot of hip-hop on pop radio. It's just a trend.
McIntyre: Your style of country blends with pop fairly well, and I've read that you grew up with pop. Is that something you'd want to explore further in the future?
Ballerini: Yeah! My first single was “Love Me Like You Mean It,” which is the most pop/country thing that we had at that time and it worked. I think that really allowed me to be like, “Okay, I love pop music and I love country music. I don't want to diminish either love to be commercial.” I think I'll probably keep pushing it. There's a song on this record called “Miss Me More,” that's pushing it.
McIntyre: Commercial-wise, is there a song on either of your albums that you wish had been a blow-up single?
Ballerini: It was Peter Pan, and it was the blow-up single. It's really weird honestly. That was the one from the very beginning. We were like, “This is our baby. We have to put this out when it's right.” I think the one on this new record that we have is “Miss Me More.” I feel like that's the one that we're really protective of on this record.
McIntyre: You said a deluxe edition may be coming soon. Do you know when people might hear a bit of that?
Ballerini: Just this year.
