Kelsea Ballerini Speaks Out After Performing With Drag Queens at 2023 CMT Music Awards
usmagazine.comMaking a statement — or two. Kelsea Ballerini did more than just host the 2023 CMT Music Awards on Sunday, April 2.After opening the show with a tribute to the victims of the Nashville, Tennessee, Covenant School shooting, the 29-year-old singer took the stage to perform “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too)” with drag queens Kennedy Davenport, Manila Luzon, Jan Sport and Oliva Lux.
The performance came weeks after Tennessee Senate Bill 3 (a.k.a Tennessee drag ban), which would ban the public “adult cabaret performance” in front of children, was introduced.“I love performance and I love self-expression and I love inclusivity,” Ballerini told Entertainment Tonight on Sunday.Davenport, Luzon, Sport and Lux went on to praise Ballerini to the outlet.“Just like all these amazing country music artists, we drag queens are also artists.
And we deserve a space to be ourselves, express ourselves, and create something wonderful for everyone to enjoy,” Luzon said.Sport noted it “means so much” to the community, explaining: “Because any opportunity for us to share our gifts with the world is a blessing.
So, it’s more of us having a message to bless other people. It’s not bad. It’s all good. It’s all love. It’s all total liberation — that’s what the arts are all about.”“Kelsea made it really clear in the rehearsal room and took even during right before the stage that she was like take up that space, you know, this is your time as well, and amplify the fact that you’re here,” Lux added. “Even the song, if you’re going down, I’m going down too — it is about the celebration of being a community.
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