Kelsea Ballerini says that she’s reframed her thinking about music awards shows, and admits that there was a point in her career when losing at those ceremonies really got to her.

“There are certain things that used to, like, really make me cry myself to sleep,” she says in a new interview for SiriusXM’s Fierce: Women in Music series. “One is when people said I wasn’t country and two is losing awards.”

Ballerini is currently looking ahead to one big awards show: The 2025 Grammy Awards, where she’s nominated for Best Country Duo/Group performance for her Noah Kahan collaboration, “Cowboys Cry Too.”

It’s her fifth Grammy nomination to date, but Ballerini’s never yet brought home a golden gramophone — and it seems like she’s not particularly expecting a win at the Grammys on Sunday night (Feb. 2.)

“I don’t win things,” she tells SiriusXM. “I mean, that sounds really…I don’t, and I’m cool with it.”

Ballerini’s found peace with an aspect of her career that used to really bother her a lot, explaining that she “changed my relationship with all of it.

“…For awards shows, like, there’s just so much else that goes into it,” she continues. “And for me, if you get nominated, that means that sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get three and a half minutes to sing on a show like the CMAs or the ACMs or the CMTs, you know, and that’s an award.”

That perspective shift made attending awards shows a much happier experience for Ballerini.

“Once I rewired my brain to think like that, I’m so ecstatic to show up,” she says, “and perform most of the time, some of the time. And then watch a friend have a good moment.”

The 2025 Grammy Awards will air live on Sunday night from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena. You can watch the show on CBS or stream it live on Paramount+.