Kelsea Ballerini on her 2023 CMT Music Awards performance with drag queens: 'I was so proud'

Country star Kelsea Ballerini is hosting the CMT Music Awards for her fourth time on Sunday.

Ballerini hosted the show's first stint in Austin last year, and in Nashville in 2021, with country artist Kane Brown. She hosted the show remotely in 2022. This year will be her first time taking the reigns of the show by herself. In addition to hosting, Ballerini is performing during the show, making for a very busy night for the chart-topping singer.

"I love hosting because it gives me an opportunity to be more involved in all of it," Ballerini said, calling the CMT Music Awards her family. "I was really excited to be back this year. I love the nervous energy I have doing it alone."

This year marks the show's second time in Austin after more than two decades in Nashville. Ballerini is happy to be back.

"It's comfortable this year. I have more of a lay of the land. I know the neighborhoods and the food," she said.

We asked Ballerini about her performance during last year's show where she featured drag queens Kennedy Davenport, Olivia Lux, Jan Sport and Manila Luzon.

"I was so proud of that performance. I was so proud to be on an award show that supported that performance. I think throughout my whole career I'll always look back on that and feel really lucky to be able to have had that stage for four minutes and to have been able to share it with those queens," Ballerini said.

The queens helped Ballerini perform her song "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)." Some online were upset, but many were happy that Ballerini highlighted drag queens during a time when states across the U.S., including Texas and Ballerini's home state Tennessee, were introducing anti-drag and anti-LGBTQ bills.

Ballerini recently got a finger wag of approval for the performance when she appeared as a guest host on "RuPaul's Drag Race." On the show's companion behind the scenes series "Untucked," she talked about why she included the queens.

"I was looking around at what was happening with the legislation, especially in Tennessee, and I was like, 'This feels like a time to give the stage to drag queens,'" she said.

Watch the CMT Awards

The CMT Awards, featuring performances by Brooks & Dunn, Lainey Wilson, Lukas Nelson, Jelly Roll, Roger Clemens, Sammy Hagar and many more will air at 7 p.m. CST on CBS. The show will also stream live and be available on demand on Paramount+. An encore broadcast of the show will air on Thursday at 7 p.m. CST on CMT.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Kelsea Ballerini: Why she brought drag queens to 2023 CMT Music Awards