KELSEA BALLERINI
SPEAKS OUT

Country star Kelsea Ballerini used her platform at the CMT Awards to speak out on two highly polarizing topics.

First came a powerful statement about gun violence in the wake of the horrific shooting at Nashville's Covenant School on 3/27, which claimed the lives of six people, three of them children.

Ballerini, who co-hosted the awards telecast with Kane Brown, named all six victims of the shooting as she addressed the camera at the top of the show, as well as her high school classmate Ryan McDonald, whose life was claimed by gun violence in 2008.

The singer declared that "the community of sorrow" created by more than 130 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023 alone "stretches from coast to coast," adding, "Tonight's broadcast is dedicated to the ever-growing list of families, friends, survivors, witnesses and responders" whose lives have been transformed by gun violence.

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

Later on, Ballerini performed her song "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)" surrounded by a bevy of drag queens. The gesture was a pointed rebuke of the so-called drag bans in multiple states including Tennessee; the legislature in Texas, where the show took place, is currently mulling a similar ban, which would enable citizens to sue any entity staging a drag performance where children were present.

What will the fallout be for Ballerini with right-leaning country fans? Will other Nashville figures speak up in a similar manner? We shall see.