Kelsea Ballerini: 'I’d love to team up with Macklemore'
Grammy nominated country music star Kelsea Ballerini has told Downtown Country of her dream to collaborate with a rap artist.
Last updated 11th Oct 2017
Speaking to Stuart Banford in Dublin during her tour with Lady Antebellum, the American singer songwriter said she was keen to work with acts outside of country.
“I want to work with a lot of people, I love blending genres, I think it’s a really cool way to get new ears on my music and country music that maybe wouldn’t have listened to it and then vice versa,” she said.
“I love putting people together that like wouldn’t make sense, like I would love to do something with a rap artist, like Macklemore.
“I just think it would be really cool to do a collaboration that you wouldn’t think would make sense and then it does..
The 24-year-old revealed she was nervous about performing in the UK and felt overwhelmed by her following of fans here.
“I just came over here for the first time in May, we did one show, it was in London and I was like is anyone going to know anything, are people going to show up?” She said.
“And they did and I was like, oh my gosh, I can’t wait to come back.
“Lady A has told me Dublin is one of their favourite markets so I’m really excited to be here.”
Kelsea has performed with some big country names in the past, including Dan and Shea, Rascal Flatts and Thomas Rhett. She has had an extremely busy schedule recently both in her career and her personal life.
She is currently touring with Lady Antebellum and recently celebrated her engagement to Australian country music singer and songwriter Morgan Evans.
“It’s been hectic for sure, I think I’ve learned that what works for me is I like to be really, really busy and then take an actual break, like a week off or something,” Kelsea added.
“Rather than having a day here and there, that’s what works best for me so I get used to sprinting, I sprint and then I go away for a minute.
Speaking about her recent hen party in Las Vegas, Kelsea said despite her music superstar status, she is just an average 24-year-old at heart.
“It was like the one weekend I had off and it was with a lot of my friends that I’ve known since I was like six years old.
“I just really wanted to take that time to like, do the normal celebration of that with those people.”
Fresh from penning her new album ‘Unapologetically’, which is due for release on November 3, the bride-to-be described the record as her coming of age story.
“I feel like it’s been a lot more thought out, there’s a lot more of me in it,” she told us.
“It’s a chronological album, it’s a story so if you listen to it from track one to track 12 in order it’s a story and I just challenged myself to like…be the best songwriter I could be at this point in my life.
“To me that meant being truthful about what I’ve been going through and what I’ve been at…it’s the journey of my last few years.”
Kelsea recently performed with Country music legend Shania Twain at this year’s Stagecoach festival in California. She said the experience was a dream come true.
“Shania, I can’t say enough good things about her,” she said.
“I mean obviously she’s an icon as an artist and a songwriter but she is just a nice person...
“I’ve gotten to kind of know her a little bit over the last year and she invited me to sing with her at Stagecoach which was insane…”
“It’s crazy when you meet a legend and you meet someone that you look up to like, I look up to her and they’re just even more lovely.
“I genuinely think that there would not be a path blazed for me if she was not performing.”
Next year’s Country 2 Country music festival returns to Dublin from March 9-11. Kelsea features in the line-up with some huge names in the industry and says she has had her sights set on the event for some time.
“I’ve wanted to play it, I’m stoked and it’s with Tim (McGraw) and Faith.” (Hill) Kelsea said.
“The coolest part about getting to open is like you get to do what you do for 45 minutes or whatever and then you get off stage and you get to be a fan and you get to kind of like be re-inspired.
“And that’s kind of what I got with Lady A and I’m excited to keep doing that.”