Kelsea Ballerini Slays Countryfied Version Of ‘hole in the bottle’ In Sequin Mini Dress

The queen is home! Kelsea Ballerini has arrived to the ACM Awards looking as fabulous as ever!

Kelsea Ballerini is celebrating her birthday week in style! The ‘homecoming queen’ singer took to the ACM Awards red carpet in Nashville rocking a fabulous sparkling dress. Kelsea’s sequin mini dress featured high puff sleeves with a fabric detail draping from her shoulder to her hip. The dress featured a dual-colored cheetah print, with the top half a burnt orange spice and the bottom a deep purple. In total stylista fashion, Kelsea paired her mini dress with matching sequin cowgirl boots! Did somebody say yeehaw?

The singer performed a stripped down version of her hit “hole in the bottle” and showed off her perfect twang! Ahead of tonight’s ACMs, the singer spoke to James Corden about her pre-recorded performance experience, calling it “weird.” “[the Academy of Country Music is] being really wonderful and safe with everything,” she said of the pre-taped event. “I was just so nervous, and then at the end, I kinda forgot there weren’t people there — and no one said anything back, it was just crickets.”

Kelsea, who is nominated for Female Artist of the Year at the 2020 ACMs, said it was “odd,” but admitted “it’s nice to be back on any kind of stage.” The singer and her latest genre-bending album kelsea was, however, snubbed at the upcoming CMA Awards, prompting her to speak out about her disappointment. “Putting out an album and working as hard as I can, even through a pandemic, I just felt disappointed to not be a part of a community that I work really hard to stand up for and be a face of and make music that I really do hope represents the genre well,” she told People. “I just felt disappointed, and that’s okay. That’ll make me make a better record next time.”

In just a weeks time, Kelsea turned around and released ballerini, a companion LP to kelsea, with each song reimagined. Tune in to the rest of the performances at tonight’s ACM Awards, from Nashville, Tennessee, on Sept. 16 from 8-11 p.m. on CBS.