Kelsea Ballerini is a three-time nominee at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards.

She’s up for female vocalist of the year, musical event of the year and, most impressively, entertainer of the year at Thursday night’s awards. She tells ABC Audio the nominations are a big deal to her.

“I’ve had to really kind of reconfigure my relationship with [nominations] over the last 10 years,” she says. “And I think for me, it’s just kind of a nod to knowing that I’m doing something right in the eyes of the town that I love so much and the genre that I love so much.”

She adds, “And so I think to really be pouring myself wholeheartedly into my career like I have the last couple of years, to know that that’s been seen by people that I respect, it’s a big deal.”

Kelsea is also performing at the ceremony and hints her performance will feature one of the songs off her album Patterns.

“It’s the biggest performance I’ve had on an award show, if I’m honest, and I, you know, I just have a lot of ‘Baggage,'” she teases. 

The 60th ACMs stream live on Prime Video Thursday at 8 p.m. ET from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

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