ABC/Byron CohenAs Kelsea Ballerini prepares for Thursday night’s live finale of ABC’s limited series Greatest Hits, she can’t help but recall some of her favorite moments from her summer gig.
“I was so excited about Pitbull!” she recalls. “Getting to watch Meghan Trainor and Backstreet Boyscollaborate was really, really special and really cool. But I think the one that really stopped me in my tracks the most was Bonnie Raitt and Andra Day. They did two songs, one of Bonnie’s, one of Andra’s, and gosh, it was just stunning. I watched both rehearsals and when they did it on the show because I couldn’t get enough of it.”
Along the way, she also discovered her co-host Arsenio Hall is quite the country fan himself.
“In my late-night work, people know me for breaking a lot of hip-hop and rap, but say for instance, I’m the first person to put Trisha Yearwood on television,” he points out. “I love country, I’m a huge country fan. My people are from Alabama!” he laughs. “I was born in Cleveland, but my people are from Alabama!”
Kelsea and Hunter Hayes represent the genre on tonight’s finale, as the “Peter Pan” hitmaker teams up with Sheryl Crow to perform her classic, “All I Wanna Do.” Hunter gets to do “All Star” with Smash Mouth.
The two-hour Greatest Hits wrap-up airs live from L.A.’s Microsoft Theatre at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
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