Like millions of other fans, Kelsea Ballerini idolizes Taylor Swift, but when it came to starting her own music career, the former quickly learned that she’d need to find her own identity in order to stand apart from the superstar.
While speaking to Variety for her Power of Women Nashville cover story published Tuesday (April 29), the “Peter Pan” singer reflected on the struggle of coming up in Music City in the wake of the Eras headliner’s unprecedented success. At the time, the hitmaker’s shadow loomed especially large over aspiring stars such as Ballerini, who, like Swift, was also a young, blonde, female singer-songwriter — something that forced The Voice coach to find ways to stand out from the 14-time Grammy winner in order to be successful.
Recalling how one label executive dismissed her early on because, as Ballerini recalled him saying, “‘There’s already a Taylor Swift,’” the country artist conceded, “And he was right.”
“There weren’t a lot of young female singer-songwriter girls in country music to look up to,” she continued. “I had to grow into my own identity as an artist and a songwriter and learn to differentiate myself.”
Distinguishing herself from Swift was even more difficult given Ballerini’s personal obsession with the “Love Story” singer — “Taylor was the North Star for me, and still is in a lot of ways,” she told Variety — but the Tennessee native eventually found her own distinct voice. Her self-titled debut EP dropped in 2014 via Black River Entertainment and earned Ballerini her first-ever Billboard Hot 100 entry with “Love Me Like You Mean It,” soon after which the project even got a cosign from none other than Swift.
“Driving around with the @KelseaBallerini EP on repeat.. SO lovely:)” the country-turned-pop behemoth tweeted in March 2015.
Swift quickly took Ballerini under her wing, with the latter telling Billboard the following year, “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?’”
Also in her Variety cover story, Ballerini gushed about someone else who’s also been hugely influential in her life, but for very different reasons. Of boyfriend Chase Stokes, the singer recalled how patient the Outer Banks actor was as she released her 2023 EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat — which is famously about her divorce from Australian musician Morgan Evans — as well as Stokes’ reaction to hearing Ballerini’s love song for him, “To the Men That Love Women After Heartbreak.”
“He loved it,” she 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.”
