Kelsea Ballerini Shares The Invaluable Advice She Received From Taylor Swift

In 2015, country-pop singer Kelsea Ballerini released her debut studio album, The First Time. Her star has been on the rise ever since, with five No. 1 hits and four Grammy Award nods. Next year, the “Peter Pan’ hitmaker will make her coaching debut on the wildly popular NBC reality competition show The Voice. However, the road to mainstream success is often fraught with obstacles, and Ballerini’s journey has been no exception. Fortunately, she was able to rely on the sage advice of a certain globally successful star.

Kelsea Ballerini and Taylor Swift Have Been Friends for 10 Years

First writing songs at age 12, Kelsea Ballerini moved to Nashville three years later in pursuit of a music career. However, comparison is an unfortunate reality for many women in country music—which the “Half of My Hometown” singer quickly learned.

During an Oct. 27 appearance on the Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist, Ballerini recalled walking into an independent label and playing a song that she’d written herself. “And he looked at me and he said, ‘There’s already a Taylor Swift,’” said the Knoxville, Tennessee-raised artist, now 31..

Indeed, there was—and she approved. ““Driving around with the [Kelsea Ballerini] EP on repeat.. SO lovely:),” the “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” singer wrote in a 2015 tweet.

Swift’s appreciation for Ballerini’s craft would prompt her to invite the future two-time CMA Award winner along on her 1989 World Tour. During that time, Ballerini opened up to the pop star about the frustrations of being “a girl on an independent label.”

“And she was like, ‘You have to become undeniable,’” Ballerini recalled. “‘Whatever that means to you, whatever that looks like to you. Then no one can tell you, ‘no,’ because what is ‘no?’ You just pivot.’”

[RELATED: “Freedom Is the Perfect Word”: Kelsea Ballerini Explains How ‘Patterns’ Wouldn’t Exist Without ‘Welcome Mat’ (Exclusive)]

‘Patterns’ Marks the End of Ballerini’s “Saturn Return”

Nearly a decade after receiving that invaluable bit of wisdom from the Queen of Pop, Kelsea Ballerini has released her fifth studio album.

Patterns dropped Oct. 25, the follow-up to 2023’s EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat. The record sees Ballerini taking a “beautiful and brutal look at her most cherished relationships—including, and especially, the one with herself.

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“written from my truest self, but meant for you to project onto your own lives and try on for fit,” she wrote in an Oct. 24 Instagram post.

Featured image by Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock