Kelsea Ballerini Releases New Single 'First Rodeo'

Weighing life’s moments of loss, love and laughter has defined 4x GRAMMY nominee Kelsea Ballerini’s career since her 2017 "Best New Artist" arrival. Always personal, always unabashed, she’s measured the reality of growing up in a world that changes quickly. For PATTERNS, the highly anticipated follow-up to the deeply personal, critically acclaimed Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, Ballerini emerged from the wreckage of her marriage and found her way forward into a whole new day.

Navigating loss, finding new love, creating a different kind of relationship and always leaning on her friends, the East Tennessee songstress wanted to be honest about the cause and costs of how life evolves. She also wanted to work with her close coterie of creatives, notably producer Alysa Vanderheym, Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Hillary Lindsey, GRAMMY Songwriter of the Year nominee Jessie Jo Dillon and Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild.

Following her Noah Kahan event “Cowboys Cry Too,” which continues to climb at Country Radio and is closing in on 90 million streams, and the confessional “Sorry Mom,” with all the tells of how we fail our parents, “First Rodeo” offers a young woman willing to seek, but speaking to the tentativity that being hurt can create. With a vibe-y track, a bit of cello and a slightly breathy vocal, Ballerini owns her own experiences and hopes for something worthy of her heart.

“Listen, there’s a reality that an inner monologue post public breakup is, 'I feel washed up on the heart front. I feel like I don’t know how to do this anymore,'" says the honey blonde. "But at the end of the day, choosing love is bigger, and the honesty of saying please take it slow and be patient with me can actually be a beautiful and connective moment. 'First Rodeo' encapsulates that conversation, and more so, that decision within self to be vulnerable and open and allowing the hope of it all to seep back in.”

To reinforce the tentativity of re-engaging, Ballerini again teamed with Patrick Tracy for a visually rapturous video filmed on the beach, on a vintage carousel, in a luxe hotel room, on a boat and in the arms of a new lover. With an emphasis on golden hour and sunset lighting, there’s a dreaminess to the clip that matches the record’s own wistfulness.

Watch the official music video premiere of “First Rodeo” today on YouTube, at 4pm CT HERE.

With another track from PATTERNS available, as well as a sold-out Madison Square Garden concert to celebrate its release, the multiple Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music award winner has much to celebrate in the coming year. Focusing on an album that embraces female friendship, vulnerability, honesty, jagged spaces and the way relationships really are, not the way they look on Instagram, she’s released her most personal and powerful work yet – and she is getting ready to take it all on the road.

“The visuals are meant to show the emotion, duality, feelings, and landscape of this record," begins the woman named to TIME Magazine’s TIME100 Next. "But as much as it’s personal and my own art and life, it’s kind of at the point now that it turns into a shared relationship…where it becomes a different meaning to everyone. Truly, that’s why I can’t wait to play this record live and see how it all connects outside of my own journey. Until then, I feel like 'First Rodeo' is the perfect final taste of the storyline and heart of PATTERNS."

About Kelsea Ballerini

Kelsea Ballerini has consistently made history. With the release of her debut album, The First Time, she became the only female country artist to hit #1 with the first three consecutive singles from a debut album. This history-making feat earned her a “Best New Artist” GRAMMY nomination. She has logged five back-to-back Top 10 entries on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including the platinum-selling The First Time (2015), gold-selling Unapologetically (2017), gold-selling kelsea (2020), ballerini (2020) and SUBJECT TO CHANGE (2022). With seven #1 singles and 33 certifications from the RIAA to date, her catalog boasts a string of essential smashes.

Among dozens of accolades thus far, Ballerini has garnered four GRAMMY nominations, won two ACM Awards, picked up two CMA Awards, took home the iHeartRadio Music Awards honor for “Best New Artist,” and received multiple career nominations from the ACM Awards, American Music Awards, CMA Awards, CMT Awards and People’s Choice Awards. Ballerini was also inducted as a member of the famed Grand Ole Opry in 2019. At the time, she notably became the Opry’s youngest member in its nearly 100-year history since being founded in 1925. 

Expanding her sphere of influence, Ballerini authored her first original book of poetry, Feel Your Way Through (2021), and Dolly Parton tapped her to star in the audiobook of Run, Rose, Run (2022). This same year, the multi-platinum country superstar was named the newest face of CoverGirl. She entered into a multi-year partnership and launched a cosmetic collaboration with the brand in 2023.

Ballerini’s fourth album, SUBJECT TO CHANGE, arrived in 2022. The gold-certified first single, “HEARTFIRST,” earned her a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Country Solo Performance.” She went on to surprise fans five months later with the release of the intimate six-song Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, which earned her a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Country Album.” Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, along with an accompanying short film written and directed by Ballerini, marked the multi-platinum star’s most honest work to date and led to her Saturday Night Live debut, universal acclaim from critics including The New York Times, Variety, Rolling Stone, as well as the honor of gracing the cover of TIME Magazine.

Most recently, Kelsea Ballerini announced her next studio album PATTERNS is set to debut on October 25th (Black River). On the album she enlisted "Best New Artist" GRAMMY nominee Noah Kahan to appear on the tender and beautifully crafted - and CMA awards nominated “Musical Event of the Year” - single “Cowboys Cry Too,” following the pair’s incandescent performance on the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards.

In addition to her new music, Ballerini currently serves as the face of COVERGIRL and Pantene and recently announced she is set to serve as Coach on Season 27 of NBC’s The Voice, premiering in Spring 2025.

With these accolades, it is no wonder NPR proclaimed, “Kelsea Ballerini is definitely one of the most influential women in country right now... she’s defining the sound of the genre.”

Photo Credit: Nyk Allen

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