Since debuting a decade ago with 2015’s The First Time, country-pop sensation Kelsea Ballerini has put it all out there. The five-time Grammy nominee, 32, got particularly vulnerable on her 2023 EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, penned in the wake of her 2022 divorce from Australian country singer Morgan Evans. The six-song project garnered an Album of the Year nod from the Country Music Association and a Best Country Album nomination at the Grammys. One of the standouts is “Penthouse,” a cathartic breakup anthem about a relationship that is working only at surface level. However, the four-time CMT Music Award host recently issued a final warning to fans who heckle her as she performs the fan-favorite ballad.
Videos by American Songwriter
Kelsea Ballerini to Aussie Heckler: “F— Off”
Taking the stage Dec. 6 at TikTok Entertainment Centre in Sydney, Australia, Kelsea Ballerini belted out, It hurts putting s— in a box / And now we don’t talk / And it stings rolling up the welcome mat / Knowing you got half.
Loud cheers from the crowd interrupted the cathartic performance, but not everyone had something positive to add. A cry of “Team Morgan!” rose above the rest of the noise, prompting Ballerini to temporarily halt her performance. (Evans, 40, hails from New South Wales, Newcastle, Australia.)
“F— off,” the Knoxville, Tennessee native said, rolling her eyes. She then walked to the front of the stage and announced herself as, “Team Everyone’s Happy.” Flashing a thumbs up, Ballerini continued the song: I kissed someone new last night / And now I don’t care where you’re sleeping, baby. (That was a pointed change from the original lyrics, But now I don’t know where you’re sleeping, baby.)
“Team Everyone’s Happy or Bust”
Later taking to her Instagram Stories, the “I Sit in Parks” singer made it crystal clear that more of this behavior will mean the end of “Penthouse” in her live rotation.
[RELATED: Kelsea Ballerini Soars With “I Sit in Parks” Performance at 2025 CMA Awards]
“Respectfully, if anyone yells anything disrespectful to anyone during this song again, it will no longer be on the set list,” she wrote, according to Taste of Country. “Please let this be a song that matters to people and not a place to insert yourself into a world that doesn’t exist and was never yours to begin with.”
Then, Kelsea Ballerini repeated her sentiment from the concert. “”Team everyone’s happy or bust,” she continued. “Please.”
On social media, Kelsea Ballerini supporters also called for an end to the heckling. “Hearing this song live in a stadium full of fans and just feeling it in your soul was one of the best things feelings ever,” one TikTok user wrote. “and to think obnoxious people could ruin that for others honestly makes me sad.”
Featured image by Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.