Kelsea Ballerini Dedicates CMT Awards To Nashville Shooting Victims

Kelsea Ballerini started off the 2023 CMT Music Awards on a very emotional note. She opened the show tonight (4/2) wearing a black suit, and she paid tribute to the victims of the Nashville school shooting.

Looking straight into the camera, she said, "On March 27, 2023, Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, along with Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, and Mike Hill, walked into The Covenant School and didn't walk out."

She tears up and continues, "The community of sorrow over this and the one hundred and thirty mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone stretches from coast to coast. I wanted to personally stand up and share this moment because, on August 22, 2008, I watched Ryan McDonald, my fifteen-year-old classmate at Central High School, lose his life to a gun in our cafeteria."

Ballerini added in closing, "Tonight's broadcast is dedicated to the ever-growing list of families, friends, survivors, witnesses, and responders whose lives continue to forever be changed by gun violence. I pray deeply that the closeness and the community that we feel through the next few hours of music can soon turn into action like real action that moves us forward together to create change for the safety of our kids and our loved ones."

Nashville is still recovering from yesterday's (3/27) school shooting, which killed three children and three adults at a private Christian school. More country music stars and other celebrities have been commenting on the tragedy, including Kelsea Ballerini, Reba McEntire, and a handful of wives of country superstars.

We gathered some more posts from social on the senseless tragedy that hit the Nashville community.

Kelsea wrote on Insta stories in two different posts, the first one saying, "I'm heartbroken, I'm triggered, and I'm terrified for the loss we continue to have in this country due to guns. Three (expletive) kids. What are we doing?" In a second post today (3/28), Ballerini postponed her video premiere, saying, "Hey guys, yesterday was hard, and we are still trying to process what happened. We're going to move the video premiere to a little later this week. Hug your people. Love you."

Today (3/28), Lainey posted on her Insta stories, "My heart goes out to everyone involved in this horrible situation. Love you, Nashville. Lifting you up."

Katelyn posted to her Insta stories, "So incredibly sad for the families and children in Nashville today. Praying for everyone involved."

Nicole Combs said on her Insta stories not long after the shooting happened yesterday morning (3/27), "I am in tears. I will never understand how people can do this. Praying for these families."