Kelsea Ballerini used to envy Carrie Underwood's voice, until she 'stopped trying to sing like my heroes'
Kelsea Ballerini nabbed her fifth No. 1 song in four years in June with “Miss Me More” – the first time a female topped the country radio airplay charts since Ballerini did it 15 months prior with “Legends.” She joined the Grand Ole Opry in May and headlined her first arena tour.
For the first time in her career, the 25-year-old Knoxville native didn’t tour heavily this summer. She used the time to focus on making her third album. The break from the road – which she admits is short – also allowed her to reflect on the milestones she’s collected in the last six months.
“I’m a 4 year old when it comes to this,” Ballerini said, explaining that her debut album “The First Time” was released in 2015. “I’m a baby. Doing an arena tour and joining the Grand Ole Opry, those are two things I didn’t think would be on my horizon for a long time, if ever. It makes me really grateful, but it also makes me want to earn it just in case it was early. I want to make sure the music I make … that I have this intentional time to make right now, is worthy of being an Opry member and worth of being in an arena.”
The past few months have been a season of learning for Ballerini. She realized that radio airplay isn’t the only determining factor in a hit song. She said that in concert her songs “Yeah Boy” and “I Hate Love Songs” — neither of which were No. 1 hits — are among the most popular of the night while “Legends” receives a “softer” crowd reaction. She also saw what can happen when country radio fully embraces a song. “Miss Me More,” the third single from her second album “Unapologetically,” reached the No. 1 position on country radio faster than any other song in her career, a fact she believes was a tipping point in the success of her arena tour.
“That shows the power of a great song,” said the singer, who is signed to Black River Entertainment. “That song was given that platform, and we were able to put together a 15-date arena tour on that song. I’ve learned a lot about the value of a hit.”
She’s also come to understand the intricacies of her voice, which she admitted she used to resent. Ballerini desperately wanted to be able to belt out songs like Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride. When she made her first album, she thought she could sing like them. She said there are places on her second album that she can hear herself making the same mistakes. But now that she’s well into recording her third, Ballerini said she has “really just settled into my voice.”
“I learned what it can do,” she said. “I learned what makes it special. And, I stopped trying to sing like my heroes. I think vocally on this record I’m really excited about where that is laying.”
Ballerini’s third album won’t be available until 2020, but her first single from the project will be out in early September. The collection includes a song about her hometown, and she said she cries every time she hears it. As Ballerini has grown older, she’s grown inward. She believes people expect her to be writing love songs because of her happy marriage, but she isn’t.
“I think now that I’m married, it gives me such a perspective on the other relationships that failed me,” she explained. “I’m writing the most heartbreaking songs I’ve ever written because I understand what went wrong before now. I think the older I get … the more confident I feel about writing that kind of stuff. I write my songs, and I play guitar, and I write about what I’m going through. I’m just really excited to clean the slate again.”
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Kelsea Ballerini used to envy Carrie Underwood's voice
