Kelsea Ballerini Doesn't Aim 'To Make A Point On The Internet' With Her EP

Kelsea Ballerini opened up about the songs on her new EP, Mount Pleasant — including stating that she doesn’t write her music “to make a point on the internet” — during an intimate pop-up show on Monday (November 17) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Ballerini, 32, played the collection live (on a park-inspired stage) at The Mount Pleasant Experience at Vu Nashville in Nashville, Tennessee. She reportedly shared while talking about “Emerald City,” “I write songs to relate to, not to make a point on the internet.” The vulnerable ballad has garnered speculation among social media commenters referencing Chase Stokes and his ex-girlfriend and Outer Banks co-star, Madelyn Cline. Stokes reacted to the speculation in the comments on Ballerini’s TikTok hours before the singer-songwriter’s performance: “These comments are f***ing weird. Grow up.”

Ballerini started dating Stokes in January 2023, shortly after sliding into his DMs on Instagram. News broke in September that the couple split up, and they’ve since sparked rumors that they’re dating again. An unnamed “insider” told US Weekly earlier this month that “Kelsea and Chase are giving their relationship another try. There’s still a lot of love there, so they fell back into it very naturally.” However, neither Ballerini nor Stokes have publicly commented on their breakup or relationship status as of publication time on Tuesday (November 18).

Mount Pleasant, which arrived on November 14, takes on the same name as a town in South Carolina that serves as a filming location for Outer Banks. The collection includes “I Sit In Parks,” the vulnerable ballad that released from the project first, “People Pleaser,” “Emerald City,” “587,” “The Revisionist” and “Check On Your Friends.” Ballerini emotionally spoke about each song during The Mount Pleasant Experience on Monday. She thanked fans in the intimate audience “for embracing the not-so-glittery parts of me over the last few years. I know that I'm the luckiest to be able to have all these very big feelings and be like, ‘I need to put it in music or I will combust.’”

Ballerini’s Mount Pleasant follows Patterns, her 2026 Grammy-nominated studio record that she extended with a deluxe edition earlier this year. The country superstar, who is getting ready to take the stage at the 59th CMA Awards on Wednesday (November 19), previously described Mount Pleasant as “a collection of six songs that i’ve written throughout the summer, marking a chapter of heavy self examination, longing, and stepping further into who I am as a 32 year old woman.”

The 59th CMA Awards will air live on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on November 19. The show will be available to stream the following day on Hulu.