Kelsea Ballerini Joins Arsenio Hall In Bringing Back The ‘Greatest Hits’

Kelsea Ballerini is another rising star, breaking records as one of country music’s hottest female recording artists with chart toppers like “Peter Pan” and “Love Me Like You Mean It,” but she’s now adding television star to her list of achievements. Together with Arsenio Hall, Kelsea is hosting a brand new music show, which seems reminiscent of Casey Kasem’s American Top 10, which ran from 1980 through 1989. In fact, Greatest Hits, to be hosted by Ballerini and Hall, will showcase many of the same acts once featured on that countdown series, as well as other past favorites to have graced the music charts over the past 25 years.

Kelsea Ballerini And Arsenio Hall Will Give Us Six Weeks Of Our Favorite Greatest Hits

According to Forbes, Kelsea and Arsenio are preparing to overload our sense of nostalgia with Greatest Hits, a six week program that will let many of us relive the past with wild live performances from some of the greatest artists of the past 25 years. While it will certainly be short lived, Greatest Hits may be as well received to today’s generations as American Bandstand was for generations past. Ballerini and Hall kicked off Greatest Hits tonight with a live tribute to Michael Jackson, performed by Jason Derulo. Also taking tonight’s stage on Greatest Hits was a duet between REO Speedwagon and Pitbull, followed by Ray Parker, Jr., performing his original Ghostbusters theme song.

While Kelsea has quickly become a household name among country music fans, the rest of the world is still unfamiliar with this rising star’s talent. Her high profile position as co-host on Greatest Hits may change that, exposing her face to the millions of music fans outside of the country music genre. For Ballerini, she’s still overwhelmed by the stardom she’s already achieved, prior to her Greatest Hits gig, and says success has happened so fast that she still finds it hard to believe how much her life has changed in so short a time.

Greatest Hits Host Kelsea Ballerini Opens Up About Working On The New Music Series

According to SF Examiner, Ms. Ballerini says working on Greatest Hits with Arsenio Hall has been nothing short of amazing, adding that, while it’s not something relatable to her chosen genre of country music, it’s still enjoyable, because it still celebrates music in its various forms and styles. Kelsea reveals that the first five episodes have already been pre-taped, while the sixth and final Greatest Hits episode will be done live on August 4.

This was Kelsea’s first time co-hosting a series and she was nervous at first, but she says working with a legend like Arsenio Hall, who also has a very personable demeanor, went a long way toward making her feel at ease.

“Arsenio and I met each other an hour before we started filming, but we automatically had this awesome friendship,” Kelsea says. “And I think we decided that the teleprompter was more of just a guideline, because we just cracked up the whole time.”

Ballerini says working on Greatest Hits has exposed her to new musicians, even though she may have already been familiar with their most popular singles. One example Kelsea gives is “I Want To Know What Love Is” by Foreigner. She says everyone has heard the song, because it’s played at so many proms across the country, even today, but she wasn’t familiar with Foreigner specifically. Greatest Hits gave her the opportunity to open herself up to more of Foreigner’s music.

“I do my research. But I’m really just into discovering new music,” says Ms. Ballerini on the idea of rediscovering artists from the past and introducing new acts. “I think that right now, music is in a really free period, where everyone’s trying new things and pushing boundaries, or not even having boundaries, which is pretty cool.”

[Image by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for CMT]