Kelsea Ballerini is clearing the air after being accused of lip-synching her performance at the 2023 People’s Country Awards.

Ballerini, 30, belted out her hit “Mountain With a View” at the awards show, which was held at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on Thursday, September 28. While many fans were quick to praise the heartfelt ballad, others claimed her vocals weren’t genuine.

“I just wanna say, if I was lip-synching, I would’ve sounded a lot better,” Ballerini teased via her Instagram Story after the ceremony. “One of the cameras was off. Thank you and goodnight.”

In a subsequent Story, Ballerini shared a snap of herself posing backstage and giving the camera a coy side-eye glance. “Me singing live watching other people thinking otherwise,” she captioned the unbothered pic.

The first annual People’s Choice Country Awards aired on NBC, and the network gave Ballerini a shout-out as her performance faced criticism online. “@KelseaBallerini’s FLAWLESS glitch-free performance 🤩 nobody does live vocals like her!” read a tweet on Thursday alongside a video from the big night.

Ballerini was up for four awards at the inaugural event, including People’s Artist, Female Artist, Social Country Artist and Best Album. She finished the night empty-handed.

Ballerini attended the show without boyfriend Chase Stokes. “He was at rehearsals,” she told E! News on the red carpet. “It was his first time at the Opry, which was very fun to show him around my home away from home. So, he’s here in spirit.”

The couple first sparked dating speculation in January when they were spotted together at the College Football Playoff National Championship in Los Angeles. One month later, Ballerini — who split from ex-husband Morgan Evans in August 2022 — explained how she reached out to Stokes with the encouragement of her manager.

“I slid into those DMs,” she revealed on an episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “He shoots [Outer Banks] in Charleston, and my manager lives there. …. He was like, ‘You know who’s really cute, like, when you’re ready? Chase.’ I was like, ‘You’re so right.’”

Ballerini continued: “His [Instagram] handle is ‘hichasestokes’ and I just said, ‘Hi Chase Stokes.’ … I have my s—t together and for me to share that with anyone is a gift. I want to be with someone that feels the same way about their life. … I’m a relationship bitch.”

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The two have been going strong ever since, making their red carpet debut at the CMT Music Awards in April. They later attended Variety and the Golden Globes’ Venice Film Festival together in matching black attire and donned complimentary red ‘fits of the 2023 MTV VMAs in August, where Ballerini performed her hit single “Penthouse” while celebrating her 30th birthday. 

“They work so well because they have fun together,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in July. “They have a no-drama relationship and can just be themselves.”

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