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After musician Kelsea Ballerini’s song “The Other Girl” won the performance of the year award at the 2021 CMT Awards, she used her acceptance speech to respond to critics who said the song didn’t was “not country enough”.
Ballerini co-performed the song at the Wednesday night awards ceremony alongside electropop artist Halsey. Halsey co-performed the song on Ballerini’s third studio album, Kelsea. The song is a country-pop duo in which two women sing about the pain and the longing to know that their lover is involved with another woman.
The song achieved financial and critical success for its emotional narrative and catchy chorus. However, some social media commentators have criticized its pop instrumentation as not reflecting the genre of country music.
Nonetheless, fans voted for Ballerini’s song to win the CMT Performance of the Year 2021. By accepting the award, Ballerini addressed its critics.
“There has been a lot of talk about ‘categorically’ what genre this song fits or doesn’t fit,” she said. “And the fact that you voted for the winning performance tells me that you know where my roots are and that you know who I am. But it also tells me that you hear music like music, and tells me that you love when people push boundaries and explore art. While I’m making a new record, that means the absolute world to me. “
At the 2021 CMT Awards, musician Kelsea Ballerini responded to critics who said her award-winning song “The Other Girl” was “not country enough” to win. In this photo from February 21, 2019, Ballerini performs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. Scott Legato / Getty
Other female artists like Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus have blurred the lines between country music and pop. The mix of genres helped them experiment with different styles of music while attracting a wider range of fans.
At Wednesday night’s awards show, Ballerini and Halsey performed the song in leather outfits while dancing in a bar. The performance evoked a similar scene from the 2000 movie Coyote Ugly. The film is about an aspiring songwriter fulfilling her dreams while working in a New York bar.
Ballerini and Halsey met in 2018 after Ballerini attended a Halsey concert in Nashville, Tennessee. The two women met backstage and quickly became friends, they said in interviews.
Ballerini first shared “The Other Girl” with Halsey in Los Angeles while asking her if she wanted to collaborate on it. The pair then made their song debut in 2020 on an episode of CMT Crossroads, a TV show that pairs country artists with musicians from other genres.
“The Other Girl” reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 52 on the Country Airplay chart and 95 on the US Billboard Hot 100 song chart.
Newsweek has contacted Ballerini’s publicist for comment.
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