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Kelsea Ballerini paid tribute to her “hometown hero.”
Ballerini took the stage in honor of Kenny Chesney on Sunday evening (October 19). Chesney was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, alongside June Carter Cash and Tony Brown, during a star-studded Medallion Ceremony at the museum’s CMA Theater in Nashville, Tennessee. Ballerini covered Chesney’s “Somewhere with You,” which appeared on his Hemingway’s Whiskey record in 2010. That album also inlcuded “The Boys of Fall,” “You and Tequila,” “Reality” and more.
“I got to surprise my hometown hero and sing one of my favorite songs of his at his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame last night,” Ballerini shared on her Instagram story on Monday (October 20). “[Kenny Chesney] it will always be an honor to honor you. I’m so grateful to be in your orbit.”
The two East Tennessee-born country stars previously teamed up on “half of my hometown,” a ballad that scored Ballerini her first-ever Country Music Association Award in 2021. Chesney said at that time that “growing up in East Tennessee, it’s a deeper kind of home. You have to have lived it to really understand. Kelsea knows that, knows how hard it is to leave to chase a dream like music. It’s what made being part of ‘Half of My Hometown’ so special! I know that feeling of everyone having an opinion, hating leaving all that love and needing to go out and find your place in the songs. I’m thrilled for Kelsea to have won Musical Event and Music Video of the Year! She couldn’t deserve it more, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”
After Ballerini’s rendition of “Somewhere with You,” Megan Moroney, who joined Chesney’s headlining tour last year, surprised the Hall of Fame inductee with her cover of “Knowing You.” Eric Church followed with a medley of some of Chesney’s career-spanning hits, including “I Go Back,” “Anything But Mine,” “El Cerrito Place,” “Never wanted Nothing More” and “The Boys of Fall.” Joe Galante, music executive and 2022 Hall of Fame inductee, shared heartfelt remarks and presented Chesney with his medallion.
Chesney said it was “overwhelming” to take the stage to speak at his Hall of Fame induction. “It’s an unbelievable feeling to stand here in this moment, and with every cell in my body, I feel the gravity of this moment.
“This has just been an unbelievable night for me. What an honor,” he said later. “The thing that I am very thankful for is the fact that I got to do this with so many people.”