Kelsea Ballerini, Thomas Rhett Co-Hosting 2017 CMA Music Festival TV Special
Kelsea Ballerini and Thomas Rhett have been selected as the co-hosts of CMA Fest 2017, a three-hour TV special featuring performances and highlights from the upcoming 2017 CMA Music Festival. It will be Rhett's second year co-hosting the event, and Ballerini's first.
“She is so chill and so relaxed and so easy. Kelsea is not a diva at all,” Rhett -- who co-hosted 2016's CMA Fest TV special with pal Brett Eldredge -- tells People of Ballerini. For her part, Ballerini adds that she believes they'll make good co-hosts because they "can laugh at [them]selves."
Both Ballerini and Rhett will perform during CMA Fest 2017's nightly concerts at Nissan Stadium, in addition to co-hosting the CMA Fest 2017 TV special. The experience will be especially sweet for Ballerini, who remembers attending CMA Music Festival events as a fan not too long ago.
“Me and my mom and a couple of friends would save up and plan for CMA Fest all year. We had schedules — we had fanny packs! We were very serious,” Ballerini recalls. “My first time was when I was 13, and I have pictures of me buddying up next to Lady A[ntebellum], sweating because I was so nervous to meet them.”
Rhett and Ballerini are currently out on the road together, on Rhett's headlining Home Team Tour, and in addition to becoming friends themselves, they've also enjoyed getting to know each other's significant others.
"Her fiance might be one of my favorite human beings that ever exists,” Rhett says of Morgan Evans, the Australian country singer-songwriter to whom Ballerini got engaged on Christmas. “On the road, every night is somewhat of a double-date.”
The 2017 CMA Music Festival is scheduled to run June 8-11 in Nashville. For more information on tickets and performers at CMA Fest 2017, visit the CMA Music Festival’s official website. CMA Fest 2017 will air on ABC sometime this summer; exact broadcast details will be announced at a later date.
(Some of) CMA Fest 2016 in Pictures