Kelsea Ballerini Responds to Fans’ Lip-Sync Accusations After People’s Country Music Awards

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Kelsea Ballerini shut down accusations that she was lip-syncing while on stage at the People’s Country Music Awards.

“I just wanna say, if I was lip-synching, I would’ve sounded a lot better,” she wrote across her Instagram Stories following the show on Thursday, September 28. She then pointed out, “One of the cameras was off. Thank you and goodnight.”

The 30-year-old singer followed up by sharing a photo of herself backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, writing, “Me singing live watching other people thinking otherwise.”

NBC shared a clip via X — previously known as Twitter — of Kelsea performing her song “Mountain With a View” during the awards ceremony. In its tweet, the network wrote that she delivered a “flawless, glitch-free performance.” However, quite a few viewers questioned whether or not she was singing live.

.@KelseaBallerini’s FLAWLESS glitch-free performance 🤩 nobody does live vocals like her! watch the #PCCAs on NBC and @peacock. pic.twitter.com/dI4OVz3jDt

— NBC Entertainment (@nbc) September 29, 2023

“Except that she wasn’t singing,” one X user tweeted. “You were lip-syncing! You were off twice!” another claimed while a third alleged, “She was lip-syncing. What are you talking about? She wasn’t even singing in the beginning, you can see the mistake.”

Kelsea isn’t afraid to respond to baseless rumors, and she has addressed the same topic in the past. In 2020, the “Blindsided” singer collaborated with Halsey for the CMT Awards to sing “The Other Girl.” In response to fans who alleged that “many” performers weren’t singing live, Kelsea replied to one commenter, “Not true, every performance was prerecorded because, ya know, COVID.”

Aside from dealing with social media bullies, Kelsea has been thriving in her career and personal life. After divorcing her ex-husband, Morgan Evans in 2022, the Tennessee native started dating Outer Banks heartthrob Chase Stokes. Though he couldn’t attend the People’s Country Music Awards with his girlfriend last night, Kelsea told E! News that he was there “in spirit.”

“He was at rehearsals,” she gushed on the red carpet. “It was his first time at the Opry, which was very fun to show him around my home away from home.”

As for how the couple first met, Kelsea previously revealed that she was the one who slide into Chase’s DMs.

“I was ready to open back up,” she told “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper in February, referring to her choice to start dating again. “I just felt, why not? I’ve never really dated; I don’t know how it works. I’m like, ‘Let’s just put ourselves out there; let’s just vibe.’ And it’s been fun.”

As for what she messaged Chase, 31, Kelsea revealed that since his Instagram handle is @hichasestokes, she simple started the conversation with, “Hi, Chase Stokes.”