On Monday night, Kelsea Ballerini took to social media to express how “bummed” she felt about media pinning women in country against each other.
It all started when a Twitter account tweeted a poll. They asked which female artist their followers were most excited to see perform during the ACMs this weekend. The options included Ballerini, Lauren Alaina, Maren Morris and Kelly Clarkson. That poll didn’t sit well with the “I Hate Love Songs” singer.
“This made me really bummed today,” she began. “Since I put out my first single over four years ago, every interview includes some form of question about the females in country music… or the current lack thereof. So, we swim upstream and wear ourselves out trying to be heard and finally see the charts start to mention a few more of our names, the categories recognize a few more of our songs and even start to cheer each other on… But then there’s something as simple and seemingly harmless as this, that sets us back.”
“It takes the dozens of talented, determined, hard-working, kind women that want to continue the incredible marks on the genre the woman before us have made, and it makes us feel like there’s only one spot available. So then there’s tension. And insecurity. And this magical bond that females have when we truly, actually want each other to win… It gets compromised.”
She continued, “It makes me sad because I feel it. Heck, it makes me insecure. It makes me feel tension in a room where there is another girl that is successful. It makes me awkward. It makes me overthink conversations. It makes me assume the worst. Which is actually CRAZY. This is definitely an instavent, because I just don’t want the new females in country music to be misrepresented to the fans or the media as the popular girls in high school that pose for photos like were BFFs but secretly despise the one that dates the quarterback. And more than that, I don’t want US to feel like that. This isn’t Mean Girls, this is country music. Where you actually CAN sit with us.”
Within less than an hour, Ballerini had 8K likes on Instagram. Tons of fans reached out to the country singer and thanked her for her words. One fan wrote, “So proud of everything you stand for, forever inspired by you!” Another said, “Keep doing what you are doing and keep this perspective and mindset and no matter what happens you will be overflowing with blessings!”
Check out the full post below and let us know what you think about what Ballerini had to say. Let’s all make a promise to change the narrative — especially when it comes to women in country.
