Kelsea Ballerini Responds To Trolls Saying She 'Forgot' Pants At CMT Awards

Kelsea Ballerini posted a message to the trolls who criticized one of her 2024 CMT Music Awards looks. Ballerini, who solo hosted the show on Sunday evening (April 7), took the stage to deliver the debut performance of her newly-released reimagined version of “Love Me Like You Mean It.” Some viewers apparently complained that during her performance, Ballerini looked as though she “forgot” her pants.

“‘You forgot your pants for your performance.’ Shut up,” Ballerini said in a response she posted on TikTok. “No I didn’t. No I didn’t. ‘Where are your pants?’ Shut up. It looked hot. Period. Bye.”

Ballerini, 30, released the reimagined version of one of her earliest career hits on Friday (April 5), days ahead of the CMT Music Awards. She shared at that time: “ten years ago, i was twenty, naive, starry eyed, and absolutely relentless on putting my music out into the world. i’m proud to say, nothing has changed…except a DECADE of this wildly beautiful journey we’ve gotten to share full of tours and sing alongs, wins and losses, and growing up together. soooo, before we move into new music (yes, it’s coming i swear) i wanted to celebrate the beginning with you. the song that started it all, love me like you mean it (reimagined and ten years later) comes out tomorrow night at midnight. oh, and i’ll be performing it on the [CMT] awards sunday. see you there. love you, mean it. ❤️”

Ballerini returned to the CMT Music Awards stage to solo host the show, held for its second year at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Other performers included Jason Aldean, Dasha, Bailey Zimmerman, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson, Little Big Town with Sugarland, Megan Moroney, NEEDTOBREATHE with Jordan Davis, Old Dominion with Megan Moroney, Parker McCollum with Brittney Spencer, Sam Hunt, and Trisha Yearwood, who was revealed as the first-ever June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award. CMT also announced an all-star tribute to late country legend Toby Keith, who died earlier this year after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 62. The tribute included Brooks & Dunn, Sammy Hagar and Lainey Wilson, with special appearances by Roger Clemens, Lukas Nelson and Riley Green.

See the list of winners here.

Watch Ballerini’s CMT Music Awards performance again here.