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Kelsea Ballerini, Kane Brown Say 'CMT Music Awards' Sparked Their Friendship

Ballerini and Brown will co-host the 'CMT Music Awards' on June 9

As co-hosts of the upcoming CMT Music Awards on June 9, Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini have spent weeks working together for the awards show. Along the way, they've also forged a friendship.

"It's been forever since we have really done anything," Ballerini recently told CMT's Cody Alan. "It's nice to be able to do something with people, especially to do something with fans, and involving music and to put all of that into hosting something like the 'CMT Awards' is amazing."

Brown concurred, saying, "We have never done anything before. Me and her husband [artist Morgan Evans] have been on tour together before, stuff like that."

"It's all in the family," Ballerini added.

"I just found out that she is from Knoxville today," Brown said.

"You're from Chattanooga?" Ballerini responded.

"Georgia, but right on the line, so we are like an hour and forty-five minutes away from each other," Brown said.

"I just learned that today. It's funny, me and Kane have written together, but we haven't hung that much. We had this amazing day of press together, and I am like, 'Man, I just got a new friend out of this. This is amazing.' It's the best kind of thing to bond over music, and you know, just hang out." Ballerini said.

Last year, Brown hosted the CMT Music Awards alongside Sarah Hyland and Ashley McBryde. Though this is Ballerini's first time co-hosting the CMT Music Awards, she's no stranger to hosting duties. She's previously hosted the televised special CMA Fest several times, alongside Thomas Rhett.

At this year's CMT Music Awards, Ballerini and Brown are both nominated for Video of the Year--Ballerini for her "hole in the bottle" video and Brown for his "Worldwide Beautiful" video. Brown is also nominated for Male Video of the Year ("Worship You") and Collaborative Video of the Year ("Famous Friends" with Chris Young). Ballerini is also nominated for Female Video of the Year ("hole in the bottle"), and CMT Performance of the Year ("The Other Girl," with Halsey, from the 2020 CMT Music Awards).

The CMT Music Awards will broadcast on CMT, as well as on MTV, MTV2, Logo, Paramount Network, and TV Land.

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