Kelsea Ballerini Tells Critics of Her CMT Awards Performance Outfit to ‘Shut Up’

Kelsea Ballerini took the stage at the 2024 CMT Music Awards on Sunday night (April 7) to perform her throwback hit, “Love Me Like You Mean It,” but not everyone was a fan of her bold fashion choice.

The 30-year-old country star performed the the 2015 track in a gold, high neck leotard, which she pared with black tights and, notably, no pants. To responds to critics of the style, she took to TikTok to playfully mock the haters. “‘You forgot your pants for your performance.’ Shut up! No, I didn’t! No, I didn’t,” she says in the clip. “‘Where are your pants?’ Shut up. It looked hot.

Ballerini hosted and performed at the annual award show at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, after co-hosting the show for the past three years. In 2021 and 2023, Ballerini led the CMT Music Awards with Kane Brown, while in 2022, she co-hosted the show remotely. “My first memory of the CMT Music Awards was when I was in high school. I had just moved to Nashville and me and a friend waited outside of the barricade at the CMT Music Awards when they were still in Nashville,” she told Billboard before the show. “We just waited for artists to come over because we wanted to meet them and take pictures with them. I remember Keith Urban came over and I have a picture with him. As a fan, it was one of the craziest moments of my life, so it feels very full-circle to go from the kid outside the barricade to being the host of the show. That’s not lost on me and I’m very excited to be here.”

Watch Ballerini’s CMT Awards performance below.