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Kelsea Ballerini serenaded Shania Twain as she danced her way onto the historic Ryman Auditorium stage to kick off the 15th Annual ACM Honors, which premiered Tuesday night (September 13) after filming last month in Nashville, Tennessee.
Ballerini was decked out in a nod to Twain’s iconic look in her “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” music video as Ballerini paid tribute to her with the 1990s smash hit. The high-energy performance was the second time Ballerini paid tribute to Twain that evening, after wearing the “That Don’t Impress Me Much” artist’s stunning gown that she wore to the 41st annual GRAMMY Awards in 1999.
Ballerini gushed that she got to honor “my hero and friend…with her epic vegas residency dancers” during the show.
That was the year that Twain won Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song for “You’re Still the One,” according to the GRAMMY Museum. Ballerini couldn’t stop gushing over the dress when she shared the moment she unboxed it on TikTok the day after filming the ACM Honors in August: “…and if it fits, I have Shania’s permission to wear it tomorrow on the carpet.” The “HEARTFIRST” artist tried on the dress with two friends, who exclaimed “it zips!” as she put it on for the first time.
Twain received the ACM Poet’s Award, which honors “an international superstar and one of Country Music's most versatile and invigorating songwriters, with instantly-recognizable hits and the title of top-selling female Country Pop artist of all time,” according to the Academy of Country Music. Ballerini’s was one of a few tribute performances to the country music trailblazer, in addition to Tiera Kennedy — who made her Ryman Auditorium debut with her rendition of Twain’s “From This Moment On” — and pop-punk princess Avril Lavigne, performing “No One Needs To Know” (a performance so good that Twain herself, who once performed with a teenaged Lavigne, suggested the pop-punk princess “should’ve gone into country, honestly”). Re-watch Twain’s iconic music video here: