Kelsea Ballerini Speaks About Coffee Colab And Preparation For New Adventures
Kelsea Ballerini brought extra energy to her CMA Fest performance this year, thanks to a little help from her new coffee blend. The country star, 30, teamed up with Original Donut Shop to launch the limited-edition Ballerini Blend, a medium roast coffee.
Speaking with PEOPLE at Harriet’s Nashville, she shared her excitement about the collaboration and her go-to coffee recipe: “Other than my wake-up cup of black coffee, my go-to is always coffee, a little oat milk, and vanilla. I wanted to combine the two. Why can’t that happen in the morning? It’s a happy cup.”
The coffee blend, which quickly sold out on Keurig.com, gave Kelsea the caffeine boost she needed for her June 7 performance at CMA Fest. This marked her return to the festival after missing most of it in 2023 due to her HEARTFIRST tour.
She expressed her excitement about performing new songs from her Grammy-nominated EP Welcome Mat. “I’m doing ‘Blindsided’ and ‘Penthouse,’ and I’m really excited to see how many people are ready to scream ‘Yeah, Sure, OK’ — or how many people are really confused by it.”
Fortunately, the crowd knew every word, leaving Kelsea thrilled with their response. With CMA Fest behind her, she’s now focused on her upcoming album. “Half of it is in mixing and half of it is in finishing vocals and doing overdubs. We’re really close to being done. And the first single is right around the corner,” she explained.
Kelsea has put considerable thought into the album’s feel, look, and sound. Reflecting on the pressure of following up Welcome Mat, she said, “I was really, really nervous on how to follow up Welcome Mat, just because it changed my life and my career so much. I was like, ‘I don’t know how to … where do I go from here?’ That was about such a specific experience that I’m no longer in, and it took me a couple months to figure out what that looks like.”
“I took the truth-telling and the integrity of my songwriting and I just moved it into this chapter of life. It’s being 30 and being in a relationship and being a friend and being a daughter, and feeling like an adult but also still feeling like a kid — all of those nuances and really writing about it from that same place of honesty. And now I feel like I’m ready to follow it up,” she added.
In addition to her music, Kelsea is set to join The Voice as a coach for the Spring 2025 season, alongside John Legend, Michael Bublé, and Adam Levine. “I’m so excited. I’m excited because it’s just such a new adventure,” she said, adding, “I’ve gotten to be on set in different capacities over the years, but to really assume that role as a coach — it’s really going to stretch me and it’s going to be a new opportunity.”
With ten years of experience in the music industry, Kelsea feels the timing of the show is perfect. “I’ve learned so much, but I’m still actively learning and I still have so many goals and stages that I want to get to. It’s a really interesting place to be in — to be able to be a coach and be like, ‘Hey, I’m still learning alongside you, so I can pour into you what I know. But I am still figuring it out too.’ I really feel like I want to just be the sister moreso than the coach.”
