Kelsea Ballerini Responds To Claims She Looked Sad After Losing At The Grammys

Things didn’t quite pan out for Kelsea Ballerini at the 2024 Grammy Awards on Sunday night, but the singer is taking everything in stride.

The entertainer, who was up for one nomination, sparked social media chatter for the look on her face after she lost out to fellow country singer Lainey Wilson in the Best Country Album category.

Despite Ballerini smiling and clapping for Wilson, some on Twitter felt she wasn’t happy enough.

Ballerini responded to the criticism on Monday, via an Instagram story.

“Ohhhh y’all,” she wrote. “You can be bummed for your loss and happy for somebody else’s win at the same time. Two things can be true and both hold valid and valuable space. The face reading and reaction analysis is unnecessary and hurtful to everyone.”

Ballerini added that, “A woman’s win is a team win,” and asked people to “Write about that instead?”

Not many seemed to focus on the reaction of the other nominees in the category, who were notably all men: Brothers Osborne, Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan.

The country singer had a tough start to her night even before the awards show started, as Los Angeles faced an uncharacteristic amount of rain and flash flood warnings.

The downpour forced the star to miss the Grammys red carpet, and nearly miss part of the show.

“It’s pouring outside, traffic’s in gridlock,” she said at the time, telling fans, “We’re not going to make the red carpet ― maybe we’ll make the show. Hopefully, by the award.”

“What are you gonna do? You’re just gonna vibe. We’re just vibing,” Ballerini said calmly.

Ballerini later posed with celebrities including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Lionel Richie at the award show, and was able to show off her gorgeous black silk Vera Wang look.

The high-neck halter dress, from Wang’s Spring 2024 Collection, included hand-painted lavender silk organza florals, according to the designer.