Knoxville native Kelsea Ballerini delivers messages while hosting 2023 CMT Awards

Knoxville native Kelsea Ballerini took a stand while co-hosting the 2023 CMT Awards with Kane Brown in Texas on April 2.

The country star made an emotional plea for “real action” in the wake last week's school shooting in Nashville. And when she took the stage to sing one of her hit songs, she was joined onstage by four drag performers – another topic that has recently sparked debate in Tennessee.

Ballerini prays for change

Ballerini opened the CMT Awards without an audience to deliver a message of change after the shooting at the Covenant School on March 27. The school shooting killed three adults and three children.

"The community of sorrow over this, and the 130 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone, stretches from coast to coast," she said directly to the camera after naming all six victims from Covenant.

Ballerini – who experienced a shooting while attending Central High School in Knoxville in 2008 – passionately called for change.

"I wanted to personally stand up here and share this moment because on Aug. 21, 2008, I watched Ryan McDonald, my 15-year-old classmate at Central High School, lose his life to a gun in our cafeteria," she shared.

"I pray deeply that the closeness and the community that we feel through the next few hours of music can soon turn into action, like real action, that moves us forward together to create change for the safety of our kids and our loved ones."

She dedicated the rest of the awards broadcast to “the ever-growing list of families, friends, survivors, witnesses and responders whose lives continue to forever be changed by gun violence."

Standing in solidarity with LGBTQ performers

Later in the show, Ballerini's showed her support for drag performers. As she performed her song, “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too),” “Drag Race” stars Kennedy Davenport, Manila Luzon, Jan Sport and Oliva Lux were prominently featured.

“... Our creativity and our strength as individuals, that should be safe and it should be protected,” Ballerini said to her stage companions just moments after the performance, The Tennessean reported.

The singer’s words reportedly earned a round of applause backstage, and she encouraged people to support The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ suicide prevention.

Ballerini’s solidarity was seemingly in response to legislation in Tennessee, Texas and other states that many believe targets LGBTQ communities.

Last week, a federal judge in Tennessee temporarily blocked a "drag ban" bill signed by Gov. Bill Lee after a Memphis-based LGBTQ theater group filed a suit against the state, The Commercial Appeal reported.

Devarrick Turner is a trending news reporter. Email devarrick.turner@knoxnews.com. Twitter @dturner1208. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Kelsea Ballerini calls for action while hosting 2023 CMT Awards