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Kelsea Ballerini delivered an emotional statement as she opened the 2023 CMT Music Awards on Sunday evening (April 2), calling for change in response to the Covenant School tragedy in Nashville nearly one week earlier.
Ballerini appeared to hold back tears as she remembered, by name, the six victims who “walked into the Covenant School and didn’t walk out” the morning of Monday, March 27. “The community of sorrow over this, and the 130 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone, stretches from coast to coast.” She spoke about the “ever-growing list” of people — including families, survivors, first responders and others — “whose lives continue to be forever changed by gun violence.” She prayed that the nation’s heartbreak “can soon turn into action, like real action, that moves us forward together to create change for the safety of our kids and of our loved ones.”
The message comes six days after a 28-year-old former student opened fire at the Covenant School, a private Christian school for students in pre-K through sixth grade. Officials identified the victims 9-year-old students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, in addition to three adult staff members: substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, headmaster Katherine Koonce, 60, and custodian Mike Hill, 61. Metro Nashville Police Department officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo have been hailed as heroes for their swift response in killing the attacker during the incident.
CMT Awards co-host Ballerini noted during her heartbreaking opening statement that she witnessed a school shooting at Knoxville’s Central High School on August 21, 2008. Ballerini remembered, “I watched Ryan McDonald, my 15-year-old classmate, at Central High School, lose his life to a gun in our cafeteria.” Ballerini previously opened up about witnessing the tragedy in interviews and in a poem she included in her book, Feel Your Way Through.
Middle Tennesseans and others have mourned the victims at public vigils and participated in ways to help those affected by the tragedy, including by exceeding goals on GoFundMe pages for the victim’s families and the Caring for Covenant Fund, among others.
“I pray deeply that the closeness and the community that we feel through the next few hours of music can soon turn into action, like real action, that moves us forward together to create change for the safety of our kids and our loved ones,” Ballerini said. On her Instagram story, the award-winning artist deemed the message “the most important thing I'll do tonight.”
Ahead of the show, CMT also noted its support for Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization aiming to help prevent gun violence in homes, schools and communities.
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