PLAY MUSIC KELSEA’S LIFE MOVES SWIFTLY

Taylor Swift made her bid for pop superstardom, the Nashville country music gatekeepers went hunting for her heir apparents.

They found a wealth of young artists to step into the breach including the Swiftendorsed Kelsea Ballerini.

The 24- year- old singer and songwriter from Tennessee, who will marry rising Australian country star Morgan Evans next month, struck chart gold with her debut single Love Me Like You Mean It in 2014. She went on to create American chart history when her next two singles, Peter Pan and Dibs, joined that song at No. 1 on the US Country Airplay charts, paving the way for her debut album, The First Time, to crack the top 40 pop charts there and in Australia.

Ballerini’s second album, Unapologetically, charts a breakup of a long- term relationship and then finding love with Evans, who proposed on Christmas Day last year. Evans and Ballerini fell in love quickly after cohosting the CMC Music Awards in Brisbane last year. The album’s title track is about their whirlwind courtship and those who cautioned her about moving too fast into a new love affair after coming out of a longterm relationship.

“It’s a laundry list of things people said to me, that you are moving too quickly, you are too young and this song was me saying, ‘ I don’t care’,” she says.

Ballerini’s career trajectory has almost been as steep as that of her love life. Soon after Swift championed her debut EP, she tapped her to perform at a concert on the 1989 tour and has become a good friend.