Kelsea Ballerini featured in TIME100’s Next list

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Singer-songwriter and Knoxville native Kelsea Ballerini is featured on the 2023 TIME100 Next list.

The TIME100 Next list is another list, like TIME’s “Person of the Year” and “TIME100,” that highlights rising leads in health, climate, business, sports, the arts and more.

TIME invited current influential leaders, like Shania Twain, who submitted Ballerini to be on the TIME100 Next list. According to TIME, Shania Twain embraced 30-year-old Ballerini as “an old soul who knows how to seize a big moment.”

Ballerini has released two albums in less than one year. In September, she released her fourth studio album “Subject to Change” and nabbed a third Grammy nomination amidst finalizing her divorce from her husband of five years, Morgan Evans. She also kicked off her headlining “Heartfirst” tour on Sept. 27.

She also released an EP “Rolling Up The Welcome Mat” in February 2023, which portrays an emotional look inside her divorce.

In April, Ballerini was met with controversy after she co-hosted the CMT Awards and performed her song “If You Go Down (I’m Going Down Too)” alongside four drag queens. The performance was met with both criticism and praise, after Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that restricted drag shows in the state of Tennessee.

Ballerini has been working in the music industry for nearly a decade and has won a multitude of awards and was recently nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year for “Rolling Up The Welcome Mat” at the 2023 County Music Association Awards.

Twain told TIME that Ballerini isn’t afraid to be vulnerable and brave with songwriting.

“I watch her work incredibly hard and challenge herself, but she also has fun, and that is wonderful to see,” Twain said. “She has a powerful sense of self in those moments: she knows exactly where her heart is, and she always leads with love and inclusivity.”

Twain is a country-pop legend who revolutionized the sound of country in the 90s and has one of the best-selling albums of all time “Come On Over.” In 2015, Guinness World Records recognized the album as the biggest-selling studio album by a female solo artist.

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