- Country-pop singer songwriter born in 1993 in Mascot Tennessee.
- Ballerini sang at church and wrote her first song at the age of 12, and she learned to play the guitar a year later. Inspired by Shania Twain and Taylor Swift, she felt that she had the talent to succeed in country music, so she moved with her mother to Nashville when she was 15 years old. She spent several years contacting Nashville music insiders, and eventually an independent publishing company and record label signed her to a contract in 2013.
- In late 2014, Ballerini released a self-tited EP. It included her debut single, Love Me Like You Mean It. It was a surprise hit, reaching #1 on the Country Airplay chart, #5 on the Hot Country Songs chart and #45 on the Hot 100 chart. She was the first woman to top the Country Airplay chart with a debut single since Carrie Underwood in 2006. The song was included in her debut studio album, The First Time, released in 2015. The next two singles released from the album were Dibs and Peter Pan – both topped the Country Airplay chart. With three consecutive #1 debut songs, Ballerini was the first to accomplish this since Wynonna Judd in 1992. When Peter Pan also topped the Hot Country Songs chart, she became the first woman ever to have the same song at #1 at the same time on both charts. A fourth single from the album, Yeah Boy, reached #3 and #9 respectively on the Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts. The album ultimately was certified platinum.
- Her second album, Unapologetically, was released in 2017. Two singles from the album were in the top ten of Country charts. Legends and Miss Me More reached #1 and #2 on the Country Airplay chart, and #10 and #7 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
- Ballerini was a coach on season 15 of The Voice, the reality television singing competition. In April 2019, she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, inducted by Carrie Underwood.
- In 2020, she released her third studio album, titled Kelsea. Four singles were released, with her duet with Kenny Chesney Half of My Hometown reaching the top of the Country Airplay chart and #11 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Another single, Hole In the Bottle, reached #2 and #6 respectively on these charts. Half of My Hometown won two Country Music Association awards – Musical Event of the Year and Video of the Year. Another single, The Other Girl, was a duet with Halsey. The song won the CMT Performance of the Year award. Six months after releasing Kelsea, she released a remix album titled Ballerini – the songs were re-recorded stripped down versions of the songs on Kelsea.
- She released a book of poetry in 2021, titled Feel Your Way Through. The poems chronical her life and lessons learned along the way, including her eating disorder and her experience seeing a high school classmate shot to death by another classmate.
- She released her fourth studio album, Subject To Change, in 2022. The song Heartfirst earned her a Grammy award nomination for Best Country Solo Performance. It was her third Grammy nomination – she previously was nominated for Best New Artist in 2017 and Best Country Album in 2019. In early 2023, she released an EP titled Rolling Up the Welcome Mat. The six songs chronicled her marriage and divorce to country music artist Morgan Evans. She performed two of the songs from the EP on Saturday Night Live in March that year.
- Ballerini co-writes all of her songs, and she makes a point of having at least one song on her albums that is written only by herself. She does this to bolster her confidence in herself – she has been quoted as saying “Hey, I did this by myself. I didn’t have a man in the room.” Here is her award winning video to Half of My Hometown – Ballerini getting nostalgic about growing up in Knoxville Tennessee.