Kelsea Ballerini is embracing a new chapter both personally and professionally.
On Thursday, June 4, the 32-year-old country superstar returned to Nashville to play an integral role in SoFi’s inaugural Amplify Your Ambitions contest at Analog at Hutton Hotel. During the event, as part of the 2026 CMA Fest kick-off, Ballerini served as one of the judges, alongside the company’s Chief of Financial Empowerment, Vivian Tu, and Grammy-winning songwriter Shane McAnally.
She also took to the stage, performing a four-song set following a six-month break, and opened up about life in New York City and the inspiration behind her next musical era.
Before launching into her music, Ballerini stepped into mentor mode, offering feedback to the competition’s three finalists, which included country-pop singer Shantaia Poulin, country-soul duo The Kentucky Gentlemen, and singer-songwriter Karen Hardy. Following the finalists’ performances, Hardy was crowned the winner of SoFi’s Amplify Your Ambitions contest.
For her award, Hardy received a whopping $200,000 grand prize to help further her music career. But Shantaia Poulin and The Kentucky Gentlemen didn’t leave empty-handed. They were each awarded $50,000 in runner-up prizes.
Created in partnership with Ballerini and the Country Music Association, SoFi’s nationwide competition is designed to support emerging artists by helping alleviate some of the financial barriers associated with building a sustainable music career. For Ballerini, the event marked her first time performing in half a year following relentless touring and the release of her extended 2024 album Patterns and Mount Pleasant EP.
Addressing the crowd before launching into a string of fan-favorites like “Baggage,” “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too),” “Blindsided,” and more, Ballerini reflected on her short break, saying, “It’s been really fun to have the crazy year that last year was and just go to New York and start working on music in this completely different mindset. But I’ve really missed doing this.”
She then thanked SoFi for bringing everyone together to celebrate both creativity and perseverance.
“Thank you so much, Lauren and everyone at SoFi for having us here tonight to celebrate music and artistry and ambition and trusting yourself and believing in yourself and investing in yourself, even when that means not playing a show for six months. I love you,” she said before joking. “If I forget the words to any of these songs, then maybe I should invest in a teleprompter until then.”
Away from the spotlight, Ballerini has been building a new chapter of life in New York City, where she’s writing and recording her next album and first project outside of Nashville.
“I’m just in this phase of my career where I wanted to just, even location-wise, try on a different energy,” she told PEOPLE. “And what does my kind of country music sound like, influenced by a city that’s not Nashville? New York is just such an alive city. Everything’s blooming, and people are outside all the time. You can even hear the sirens and the people in the background of all the demos.”
After creating five studio albums and two EPs in Music City, Ballerini was eager to see how a change of scenery would influence her artistry.
“I think I am in this place in my life where I just wanted to see creatively where changing my landscape and my backdrop, what that would bring out,” she shared. “It’s really proving to feel really inspired and different in a good way, but it’s, to me, what my kind of country sounds like in a city.”
For the five-time Grammy nominee, the move has also provided an opportunity for personal growth.
“I moved here by myself, and I’m in an apartment by myself, and I haven’t done that in a long time,” Ballerini said. “If I’m in Nashville, I’m with friends and family. And then if I’m working, I’m with people all the time.”
“So it’s really been a new self-discovery challenge for me,” she added, “but I’ve gotten to make new friends, and they’re just so wonderful.”
While New York may be her current home base, Ballerini said the idea of living there had been on her mind for years.
“I was like, ‘I will do a chapter of life in New York.’ I never knew what it would be, but I knew that I wanted to do it,” she said. “And then honestly, I just felt like, ‘Why not now?’”
Additionally, Kelsea Ballerini just announced a brand-new collaboration, titled “Another Drink,” with Marshmello, which arrives on June 26, 2026.
