Kelsea Ballerini has an important PSA. After some viewers were convinced that the 30-year-old country pop star had lip-synched her performance of “Mountain With a View” at Thursday night’s (Sept. 28) inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards, she took to Instagram Stories to defend her vocals.
“I just want to say, if I was lip-synching, I would’ve sounded a lot better,” Ballerini joked in a video.
The “This Feeling” singer also provided a reason for why her performance may have seemed out of sync, something viewers tuning in to the broadcast pointed out. “One of the cameras was off,” she explained. “Thank you, and good night.”
Then, just to make sure she’d gotten her point across, Ballerini reshared a glammed-up photo from Thursday evening in her Stories, showing her looking slyly at something off camera on her left side. “Me singing live watching people thinking otherwise,” she captioned the snap.
Also on Ballerini’s side is NBC, the network home to the People’s Choice Country Awards. “nobody does live vocals like her!” it captioned an Instagram video of the star’s intimate performance, calling it “FLAWLESS.”
In addition to performing, Ballerini was nominated for several awards at the inaugural event, including people’s artist, female artist, social country star and album of 2023. Before the awards ceremony started, the singer shared her thoughts on a subject that’s on just about everyone’s minds right now: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s rumored romance.
“I love Travis,” she gushed. “We did SNL together. I love Taylor. We were close for many years. I want happiness for everyone, so vibe.”
“I ship happiness!” she added in a separate red carpet interview. “Whoever is happy with whoever is what I ship. I adore Taylor. I adore Travis. So if they’re happy, I ship it. Period.”
Watch a clip of Kelsea Ballerini singing “Mountain With a View” at People’s Choice Country Awards below:
