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Kelsea Ballerini surprised the arena audience with fellow country star Carly Pearce during her headlining show on Thursday evening (January 23) in Chicago, Illinois.
Pearce joined Ballerini for a duet version of “To The Men That Love Women After Heartbreak.” Fan accounts for Ballerini and Pearce shared a concertgoer’s video of the stunning rendition on the United Center stage. Ballerini hailed the hummingbird superstar “my angel friend” when she shared photos from the concert on Instagram on Friday (January 24).
Ballerini first debuted “To The Men That Love Women After Heartbreak” on the legendary Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville, Tennessee. That performance took place in November 2023. Ballerini introduced songwriters Karen Fairchild and Hillary Lindsey to deliver the first-ever live performance with her after teasing the song on TikTok days earlier.
“The reality is, I’ve been singing about a chapter of my life that is far past me now,” Ballerini said in a fan-recorded video that circulated on social media. She referred to Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, a deeply personal EP that shared her story of heartbreak and healing after going through a divorce. She’d already been dating boyfriend Chase Stokes for nearly a year, and the couple celebrated their two-year anniversary earlier this month. “And I’m writing about the chapter of life that I’m in, and it looks very different, and I kind of wanted to share a bit of it now. I’m very gently and slowly starting to make the next record. I really want to take the time to handle it with care. I couldn’t not sing this song for the first time with two of the women that I wrote it with, who happen to be two of the reasons that I am who I am as a songwriter and artist.”
The ballad quickly became a fan-favorite; however, those fans were quick to notice that “To The Men That Love Women After Heartbreak” did not appear on the track list of Ballerini’s fifth studio record, Patterns, which made its debut in late October 2024.
“This is a hot topic. ‘To The Men That Love Women After Heartbreak.’ It is not on the record [Patterns],” Ballerini said during a live-streamed Q&A ahead of the album’s release. “However, I had no idea how much that song, that little clip that I played on the TikTok, meant to a lot of people. So, I’m not gonna do you dirty. I definitely got you. I definitely got you. But it’s not on the record. But I wouldn’t do you like that.”
Ultimately, “To The Men That Love Women After Heartbreak” appeared as a Patterns bonus track on a digital download on her website for a limited time. the other bonus track was a stripped version of “Two Things,” another song that appears on the 15-track project.
Ballerini kicked off her first-ever headlining arena tour this month, following her sold-out album release show at Madison Square Garden in New York City with sister duos Aly & AJ and Tigirlily Gold. The ongoing tour includes special guests Sasha Alex Sloan, Ashe, The Japanese House and MaRynn Taylor on select stops. See the dates here: