Country pop star Kelsea Ballerini is making everyone cry with her Homecoming Queen video
Kelsea Ballerini strips away the “Instagram-worthy” images of her life to share how she feels on bad days in an emotional new single.
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Kelsea Ballerini is getting used to people telling her she made them cry.
The American country pop crossover star has been teasing tears since the release of her latest single homecoming queen? earlier this month.
In the final scene, Ballerini breaks down as she sings “Hey homecoming queen/Why do you lie?/When somebody’s mean/Where do you hide?”
The 26-year-old singer songwriter was inspired to write the vulnerable song about sharing the reality of a bad day instead of an Instagram-worthy version while on a US tour with Kelly Clarkson earlier this year.
“I was working on the record but I was touring all the time. When I wasn’t on the road, me and my husband were trying to meet up. Meanwhile, my friends were at home having normal Saturday nights,” she said.
“I was just kind of feeling lonely. And feeling insecure because like all young women, I was going through body issues, anxiety and all of that.
“Whenever I would have a bad day when I was like ‘I don’t want to go on stage, I feel bloated and gross” or “I really miss my mum today” I would guilt trip myself about feeling that.
“To me this song was about giving myself permission to have a good day, be happy, and also have a bad day and feel insecure.”
Ballerini has been at the vanguard of the new country movement pushing the genre into the pop charts
She hit the top 20 in Australia last year with This Feeling, a collaboration with dance music duo The Chainsmokers while homecoming queen? was in the ARIA top 50 last week.
The frequent Australian tourist is back here to perform at the inaugural Country To Country (C2C) festival alongside headliner Tim McGraw, viral sensation Blanco Brown, American country rock trio Midland and local stars led by The McClymont Sisters.
“I came here so early in my career so I feel I’ve always known how important country music is in Australia,” she said.
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And it will give her an opportunity to embrace her “inner fangirl” and perhaps score a photo with the legendary McGraw.
Ballerini remains a devoted music fan who buy tickets to concerts by her favourite artists from Carrie Underwood to the Jonas Brothers.
“I’m so embarrassing. Like I don’t want Tim McGraw thinking I am annoying but I would like to be annoying and get a photo and I probably will,” she said.
“I protect my inner fangirl. I buy tickets to shows, I travel to go see shows. I went to Minneapolis to see Carrie Underwood and I just went to see the Jonas Brothers.
“I go to these shows because I want to remember what it is like to sit in an arena or a theatre or a club and be the fan and experience the magic that artist is sharing.”
The singer will be back here in just a couple of weeks to her husband on the kickoff of the Australian leg of his world tour.
“I haven’t seen him play a show in so long … I feel like a bad wife, so I told him I was going to make it up to him and come to Australia. He just started his world tour so I am excited to see all that, especially here,” she said.
The C2C Australia festival is at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on Saturday and Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Sunday.