Kelsea Ballerini will host the CMT Music Awards from home after a positive Covid-19 test

By Scottie Andrew, CNN

Country star Kelsea Ballerini will still host the CMT Music Awards even after testing positive for Covid-19 — just not from the same room as the nominees.

Ballerini will host from home, the singer announced Monday in a video posted to Instagram, just a few hours before the ceremony. She was set to host from Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium with fellow country phenom Kane Brown and actor Anthony Mackie.

The “This Feeling” singer said on Instagram that she was “feeling a lot better” after testing positive a few days earlier, so the Country Music Television team brought part of the ceremony’s set to her home, from which she’ll perform and host.

“It is certainly not what we had expected or planned for, but we are doin’ our damn best,” she said in the clip. “Let’s make some lemonade together out of these really bitter lemons.”

The CMT Music Awards are to country music what the MTV Video Music Awards are to pop — a ceremony, voted on by fans, that awards musicians for music videos and digital performances. The nominees this year include host and musician Brown, Brandi Carlile, Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood, among many others.

The show — with Brown and Mackie onstage, and Ballerini on a makeshift stage at home — airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

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