Kelsea Ballerini Opens Up About Her Controversial Moment With Drag Queens
By Kelly Fisher
September 13, 2023
The morning after making an epic MTV VMA awards debut (on the same day as her 30th birthday), Kelsea Ballerini was revealed on the 2023 TIME 100 Next list, photographed on the cover of the iconic publication. The annual list spotlights rising leaders in their respective fields, including in music.
Ballerini reflected on an eventful 2023, including the surprise release of her deeply personal EP and accompanying short film (Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, which re-released last month with a new track and lyric swaps to previously-released fan-favorites), her Saturday Night Live debut, her high-energy tour, her controversial performance at the CMT Music Awards (which she also cohosted with Kane Brown) and more. Ballerini, “wired like a workhorse,” spoke in a recent Q&A with TIME about all of it as she blazes new trails for future generations in country music.
When asked about bringing drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race on stage during her CMT Music Awards performance earlier this year, despite an ongoing cultural divide in the music genre, Ballerini shared: “I would say, for anything in life, when there's a ‘group of people’—and I use ‘group’ in quotes—one person cannot speak for everyone. That is true for country music. I am in control of standing in what I believe in—and being a kind, good person who works towards making the world a more heard, safe, and inclusive place in whatever capacity I can do. I wish I could change a lot of things. But I can just change myself and the community around me. And I am making sure that my intentions are good and pure.
“Oh yeah, there was (pushback after taking the stage with drag queens)! At the time, a lot of anti-drag legislation was being proposed in Tennessee,” Ballerini recalled. “I was not only hosting the CMT awards, but I had a performance for a song of mine that is all about friendship and standing up for people that you love, and being ride-or-die for your people. I realized that that would be a really good, important, loud, big stage to make that statement on, and CMT was all for it.”
Ballerini performed “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too),” which quickly became a fan-favorite from her latest full-length album, Subject To Change. That 15-track project released in September 2022, months before Rolling Up The Welcome Mat arrived. Subject To Change also included the title track, “HEARTFIRST,” “Doin’ My Best,” “Love Is A Cowboy,” “You’re Durunk, Go Home” with Carly Pearce and Kelly Clarkson, and other highlights, in addition to the best-friend anthem that was perfect to promote inclusiveness.
“It’s a process, and we’re undoing a way that, specifically, country music has done things forever,” Ballerini said in her interview with TIME. “It's making sure that we're giving a voice to new artists; we're giving a voice to unsigned artists who represent underrepresented groups in Nashville because they're not getting a chance to be signed. Nobody says people don't want to jam out to guys on the radio. I do. I also want to hear from women. Just as much, maybe more. I also want to hear from people of color, from the LGBTQ+ community. I want to hear all the voices we hear on pop radio on country radio.”