Kelsea Ballerini let a little “rage” in while performing her song “Blindsided.”
Ballerini, 30, sang the ballad — which is seemingly about her divorce from ex-husband Morgan Evans — during a surprise appearance for a live taping of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in Nashville. The singer posted a video of the performance via Instagram on Tuesday, November 15, where she put up two middle fingers after singing the lyrics, “You would have searched the whole world over? Yea, sure, OK.”
Backstage, Ballerini shared why she decided to make the gesture, saying, “I always wanted to flip the bird on stage but I’ve always been a little too nervous, a little too nervous because I’m a good girl, but I have a little rage.”
“Blindsided” is from Ballerini’s Rolling Up The Welcome Mat EP, which was released in February 2022 and is currently nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Album. It was accompanied by a 20-minute short film portraying a woman, played by Ballerini, going through the stages of grief as she experiences the end of a marriage and an impending divorce.
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Ballerini previously hinted that the tune was partially in response to Evans’ track “Over for You” which he released in October 2022, two months after the couple announced they had called it quits. (Ballerini filed for divorce in August 2022 after five years of marriage and the divorce was finalized in November 2022.)
“I don’t know if I would have written a song like ‘Blindsided’ had I not been responding to something that was already out there,” Ballerini told the New York Times in March.
Evans, 38, responded to “Blindsided” on Instagram in February, writing, “It’s really sad for me to see this person, who I spent so much of my life with, and loved with all my heart, saying things that aren’t reality and that leave out what really happened.” He added, “She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on those things publicly. If this is what she needs to heal, I hope it helps.”
Following the pair’s divorce, Ballerini moved on with Chase Stokes. The twosome began dating in December 2022, and Ballerini made the relationship Instagram official two months later.
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“I slid into his DMs,” she said during a February episode of “Call Her Daddy” about making the first move on the Outer Banks star, 31. “I just swan dove right on in. … His handle is ‘hichasestokes’ and I just said, ‘Hi Chase Stokes.’”
On Tuesday, Ballerini posted a video of herself and Stokes via TikTok, soundtracked by her new single “How Do I Do This.” The sweet montage features the couple enjoying car rides, hanging out at bars and concerts, swimming and accompanying one another to events.
“Favorite human,” she captioned the footage.