Kelsea Ballerini On How Taylor Swift Helped Her Find Her True Self
Things don’t generally click for people until they’ve found and embraced their true, unique selves. That can certainly be said for Kelsea Ballerini, whose career took off when she was finally able to do so. She discusses the “how” of that evolution this week in Cosmopolitan.
Early on, the “Legends” singer tended to write songs like the ones she heard on the radio. “But the reality was, they were already on the radio,” she tells the publication. “And so no one wanted to hear what I had to say, ’cause it was already said. It’s okay to love [other artists] and okay to take notes from them and learn from them, but I think discovering what you want to say in your voice is the most important thing you can do as an artist — especially as a female.”
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Taylor Swift was among those who Kelsea learned from, and Taylor’s early support was important. “Taylor launched and completely changed the music industry in the most amazing way,” Kelsea tells Cosmo.
“I really think that she blazed a trail for all my fellow new women in country. I’ve always looked up to Taylor … so when she tweeted about my EP before my album even came out, I think that fact that she did that was her kind of being like, ‘I was a young singer/songwriter on an independent label, I feel you.’ And that was the first moment of us relating to each other.”
Things are looking pretty good for Kelsea these days, of course. Her sophomore album Unapologetically will be released November 3rd. Check out the full Cosmopolitan story here.
Teddy McDonald is a fun-lovin’ country music fan man living in Nashville, Tennessee.
