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Rare are the number of country female artists who earn a number one hit on the Billboard charts from their debut album. Kelsea Ballerini is one of them.
When Ballerini was just 22 years old, she released her 2015 debut LP The First Time. It featured “Love Me Like You Mean It”, which went on to hit no. 1 on the Country Airplay chart. From there, Ballerini’s star has been set.
The same year as her debut, she won the Billboard Women in Music Award for Rising Star, the ACM Award for New Female Vocalist of the Year and was nominated for the prestigious Best New Artist category at the Grammys.
Riding those accolades, she followed The First Time with her best-selling album Unapologetically in 2017, refining her hybrid country-pop sound, which favors moving storytelling as much as it does soaring rhythms.
Her third studio album Kelsea followed in 2019 – the same year she was invited by Little Big Town to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. In April, Carrie Underwood inducted her.
Quick on the heels of Kelsea, Ballerini released her fourth studio album in 2020, titling it after her last name. Ballerini serves as a stripped down companion to Kelsea.
Kane Brown leads the star-studded list with four nominations, including Video of the Year, Male Video of the Year and CMT Performance of the Year. Co-host Kelsea Ballerini, Mickey Guyton and first-time nominees BRELAND and Cody Johnson all have three nominations apiece.
Revisiting her songbook so far, we handpick Ballerini's best songs, from hit singles to essential deep cuts.
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