Photo: NBC
Kelsea Ballerini shared a “bittersweet” message hours before the season finale of The Voice on Tuesday (May 20).
Ballerini served as a coach for the first time in the show’s soon-to-end 27th season. She took a seat in an iconic red chair alongside returning coaches Adam Levine, Michael Bublé and John Legend, and the country star admitted she was “terrified” at first.
“I’ll be honest. I wanted to be a coach on The Voice for a long time, since I filled in for Kelly [Clarkson] a couple years ago,” Ballerini said in a clip she shared on TikTok. “And when I actually got the opportunity, I was terrified. (I was) so scared because I really had this dialogue with myself of like, ‘what if I don’t have enough to contribute to these newer artists compared to these other coaches that are legends that have been on this show?’
“I just was so nervous…that I wasn’t gonna have enough to offer, and now that we’ve been working on this season… it’s been so fulfilling and so inspired, and I couldn’t have felt more opposite of the fear that I had going into it,” Ballerini said. She shared a shortcut to The Voice producers and her fellow coaches for creating the positive environment to combat her initial fears.
The “First Rodeo” superstar also applauded the “incredible” talent on the show this season, including Team Kelsea finalist Jaelen Johnston, a country artist from Kansas.
“It’s been really invigorating for me as an artist to be around people that are just talented in different ways than me — more talented, vocally, than me — all the things, and to be immersed in that and surrounded by that, it’s just really sharpened me and encouraged me,” Ballerini continued in the clip she shared on TikTok. “To work with the 12 artists that were on my team has been a joy.
“He is a good person first and a good artist second, and I think that matters,” she said of Johnston. “He’s just been really steady, and really has that drive in him to get better and to want to do it all right, and I’m so proud to walk alongside him in this finale.”
Ballerini said “it’s a bittersweet day” as she closes “such a beautiful chapter,” though she looked ahead to what’s next, including the outcome of the finale. The winner will be revealed on The Voice on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on NBC. The show will also be available to stream on Peacock.