Kelsea Ballerini‘s debut album, The First Time, arrived more than 10 years ago, on May 19, 2025.
Her debut song made it to #1, and Kelsea admits it’s been a bit surreal ever since.
“It’s crazy, you know. We celebrated ‘Love Me Like You Mean It,’ my first single, being 10 years old last year,” she tells ABC Audio. “And that to me felt [like] in some ways it makes so much sense, because so much life has been lived. But then I also kind of just feel like it was yesterday that I was getting started and getting my bearings. And so it’s just been … a beautiful decade.”
Earlier this year, Kelsea put out The First Time: The 10 Year Anniversary Edition, complete with live versions, work tapes and unreleased demos.
Back in April, she also wrapped her 36-date headlining arena tour.
“It felt full circle in a way because my dream has always been to headline arenas,” she reflects. “And I’ve always poured so much into production no matter what kind of headlining rooms we were doing. If it was clubs, my production was always bigger than the shows we were playing. Because I buy into creating this atmosphere for people to step into for 90 minutes.”
“And I think that I finally got to a place where I was like ‘If I’m gonna make this jump, it’s now or never, so let’s just have a leap of faith,”” she adds. “And it’s done now and I can’t believe it. It’s very bittersweet, but it was so fulfilling and exhausting in the best way.”
Kelsea will perform a special show at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre on Sept. 25, before she heads to Australia for five shows in December.
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