Kelsea Ballerini on Hosting the CMT Music Awards One Final Time, and Balancing ‘Goofy’ and Serious Sides: ‘Two Things Can Live in the Same Space’

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Kelsea Ballerini has been the hostess with the mostest, as far as the CMT Music Awards, but it will soon be time to slap an “emeritus” on that.

She hosts the awards show, now seen on CBS, tonight for a fourth and last time. Ballerini is revealing she will be relinquishing the role after handling emcee duties since 2021; Kane Brown was her partner in co-hosting previous telecasts, leading up to her solo reign over the ceremony this time.

Sitting in her dressing room backstage at Austin’s Moody Center the day before the telecast, she was anything but moody in discussing why she’s enjoyed the CMTs ride so far, but why she’ll also enjoy delving further into other opportunities she’s hoping to focus on more in the time to come. “It’s my final year, yeah,” Ballerini confirms. “I’ve hosted or co-hosted this show for four years now, and I’ve gotten to host a lot of different kinds of ventures over the last decade — and I really enjoy it.

It was the first thing that I did outside of music really, that allowed me to ask myself the question: What else? Like, what else can I do?