Kelsea Ballerini Slams Lip-Synching Claims for Her People’s Choice Awards Performance

There’s one artist who has been a must-see performer at award shows recently, and that’s Kelsea Ballerini. The country superstar performed her hit song “Mountain With a View” at the People’s Choice Country Awards on Thursday, September 28, and while some viewers were blown away by her performance, others accused her of lip-synching.

While singing her hit song onstage, there were a few moments where Kelsea’s mouth wasn’t matching up to the audio, leading fans to share their thoughts online.

“You know you’re a fraud when you #Lipsync. Sure seems @KelseaBallerini did just this on the #PeoplesChoiceCountryAwards how does her voice travel to the microphone when she pulls the microphone down and misses the count to bring back to her mouth,” one person tweeted alongside a clip of the performance.”

A second person questioned, “Is my TV delayed or did I just watch #kelseaballerini lip sync?”

The Tennessee native, 30, quickly caught wind of the online critiques and slammed the haters via Instagram Stories.

“I just wanna say, if I was lip-synching, I would’ve sounded a lot better,” she said in a quick clip after the big event. “One of the cameras was off. Thank you and goodnight.”

In a follow-up post, Kelsea reshared her dazzling backstage photo with a bombastic side eye, writing, “Me singing live watching other people thinking otherwise.”

The “IF YOU GO DOWN” artist wasn’t the only one to defend her talents as NBC shared a video of her performance on X (formerly known on Twitter) and confirmed there was in fact technical issues during her act.

“@KelseaBallerini’s FLAWLESS glitch-free performance – nobody does live vocals like her!” the broadcasting company wrote.

In the midst of the lip-synching accusations, Kelsea’s fans defended her performance – including people who work in production and are familiar with live shows.

“People who are still saying it’s lip-synced must not have a trained ear for mic’d vocals or know how playback sounds,” another fan tweeted, continuing, “Yes; like all live vocals on TV, this IS run through a compressor & pitch correction, software/hardware gear live, but it is LIVE singing. Period. End of story.”

With all the chatter aside, Kelsea put on an unforgettable show. The “Blindsided” musician donned a floor-length gold gown with a low scoop neckline and high slit. She performed her song barefoot while she sat on a set of stairs while moody smoke filled the stage.

Before the inaugural award show started, Kelsea arrived on the red carpet wearing a custom Coach sparkly LBD with an exposed back and completed the fun look with a messy bun. She was up for four awards including People’s Artist, Female Artist, Social Country Artist and Best Album but left the night empty-handed.

Kelsea’s boyfriend Chase Stokes didn’t accompany her at the first-ever People’s Choice Country Awards due to work obligations.