Kelsea Ballerini, like millions of other fans, idolizes Taylor Swift. However, as she embarked on her own music career, Ballerini realized she needed to carve out her own identity to distinguish herself from the superstar.
In an interview with Variety for her Power of Women Nashville cover story published Tuesday, April 29, the “Peter Pan” singer discussed the challenges of establishing herself in Nashville following Swift’s unprecedented success. At the time, Swift’s influence was particularly daunting for aspiring artists like Ballerini, a young, blonde, female singer-songwriter, prompting her to find ways to differentiate herself from the 14-time Grammy winner.
Ballerini recalled an encounter with a label executive who dismissed her early on by saying, “There’s already a Taylor Swift.” She acknowledged, “And he was right.”
“There weren’t a lot of young female singer-songwriter girls in country music to look up to,” she added. “I had to grow into my own identity as an artist and a songwriter and learn to differentiate myself.”
Despite her admiration for Swift—whom she described as “the North Star for me, and still is in a lot of ways”—Ballerini eventually developed her own unique voice. Her self-titled debut EP was released in 2014 via Black River Entertainment, featuring “Love Me Like You Mean It,” which marked her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. The project even received a nod from Swift, who tweeted in March 2015, “Driving around with the @KelseaBallerini EP on repeat.. SO lovely:)”
Swift soon became a mentor to Ballerini. In a 2016 interview with Billboard, Ballerini said, “She’s like my big sister … She’s walked this so gracefully, so she’s the person that I go to when I’m like, ‘Hey, this is what I’m struggling with right now. How do I navigate this?"”
In her Variety cover story, Ballerini also spoke about her boyfriend, Chase Stokes, and his support as she released her 2023 EP “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat,” which addresses her divorce from Australian musician Morgan Evans. She shared Stokes’ reaction to her love song for him, “To the Men That Love Women After Heartbreak.”
“He loved it,” Ballerini said. “When we first started talking, I hadn’t put out ‘Welcome Mat’ yet, and he stood beside me through that whole musical chapter. But when it was time to write ‘Patterns,’ I wanted to write about the things we were learning in our relationship. And I think with a lot of patience and therapy, we mutually have grown a lot in these last two-plus years.”