By Mark Gregory
Editorial Director
@Hear_The _Beard
mark@buglenewspapers.com
TINLEY PARK — When Kelsea Ballerini took the stage Saturday night ahead of Keith Urban on his GRAFFITI U Tour, she told the crowd she had two jobs during her near 60-minute set — to introduce herself to those who didn’t know her and get the crowd ready for the Australian headliner.
(Photo by Mark Gregory)
If those were her two jobs, then the 24-year-old rising star had a good day at the office.
Ballerini played all the hits off her first two albums including “Love Me Like You Mean It,” “Legends, “Dibs,” “Yeah Boy,” “Kiss Somebody” and her new single, “I Hate Love Songs” off off her second album Unapologetically.
In the middle of her set, Ballerini had a few surprises for the fans.
First was a stirring cover of Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 mega hit “Landslide” where she paid all the proper homage to the song and music icon Stevie Nicks.
If that wasn’t enough for the fans, Ballerini announced that just hours before her set began her husband, Morgan Evans, landed the No. 1 spot in country music with “Kiss Somebody” — then invited him on stage to perform the song, with Ballerini adding backup vocals — giving fans a chance to share in what Evans repeatedly called a “great day.”
The timing of it all gave the Chicagoland crowd a treat no other fan base on tour will be able to experience.
As the Keith Urban fans started to fill the arena, Ballerini saved her most genuine song for last.
If fans thought she was all bubblegum country, with feel good, upbeat songs like “Yeah Boy” or the tongue-in-cheek poke at romanticism with “I Hate Love Songs,” they got to peek behind the emotional curtain of the singer songwriter when she closed her set with “Peter Pan.”
Her song about emotional disconnect in relationships topped the Hot Country Songs and the Billboard Country Airplay charts in 2016 and made Ballerini is the first female artist to have three consecutive No. 1 hits on a debut album. It also made her the first female artist to top both charts simultaneously.
If Ballerini stays on the path she is (and why would anyone doubt she would), her days of opening for the biggest artists in country music — she will be one of them.