Kelsea Ballerini made several appearances on The Voice before she was brought in to serve as a judge during season 27 in February 2025. In light of her judging debut, many fans are wondering if the “Peter Pan” singer was ever a contestant on the singing reality show.
Was Kelsea Ballerini a Contestant on ‘The Voice’?
Despite being a familiar face to the show’s viewers, Kelsea never competed on The Voice before she made it big as a country singer.
However, she did serve as a coach for “The Comeback Stage” in 2018, where a select few eliminated contestants continued to receive coaching from Kelsea and had the chance to be voted back into the show.
One year later, Kelsea returned to the show in 2019 when she served as the battle advisor for Kelly Clarkson’s team.
When Did Kelsea Ballerini 1st Become a Coach on ‘The Voice’?
While season 27 marks Kelsea’s first season as an official coach on The Voice, she previously took over the role in 2021 to sub for Kelly when the “Breakaway” singer was sick.
“Unfortunately, our own Kelly Clarkson was not feeling well this week. Kelly’s staying at home and she’s watching the battles remotely,” host Carson Daly explained at the time.
Kelsea was happy to stand in for Kelly, and she gushed about the opportunity on social media. “When @kellyclarkson calls and asks you to keep her seat warm, you put all those years of being her super fan to work,” she wrote via X at the time. “Thank you, @johnlegend, @nickjonas and ole pops @blakeshelton, for making me feel like part of the @NBCTheVoice family.”
“I’m forever #teamkelly … see y’all at the battle rounds!” she added in a follow-up post via X.
Meanwhile, Kelly made it clear that she was fully confident that Kelsea had what it took to lead her team. “Team Kelly is in great hands with you @KelseaBallerini,” she wrote in response to Kelsea’s post. She then explained in a separate post that she was missing the episode because she was simply “under the weather.”
After years of appearing on the show, Kelsea was named an official coach during season 27 of The Voice.
“The more I was around it, the more I fell in love with the culture of the show and really being able to witness how hands-on it is with the artists, just being immersed in talent all over the place, it felt like a dream job,” she said about the gig to King 5, reflecting on her past experiences on the show. “And so, yeah, couple years later, I get to have the button!”
Alongside Kelsea, the season 27 judges include The Voice veterans Adam Levine, Michael Bublé and John Legend.
Since she is the only first-time judge of the season, Kelsea explained that she uses a special button that says phrases from former coach Blake Shelton.
“I was the newbie, you know, and so I needed something to help me feel comfortable. And like I said, I needed a chance fighting for these artists against these guys,” she explained. “And so, yeah, they hooked me up with a couple little tactics, and one of them is my Blake Button.”
