Photo: Bronte Barbarito
The "Peter Pan" singer is lending her voice to an upcoming episode of Nickelodeon's hit preschool series, Blaze and the Monster Machines, playing a plucky Toucan named Tooks. She'll appear as part of a six-episode arc called "Wild Wheels" in 2017 that also features fellow country stars Billy Ray Cyrus and Darius Rucker.
The news comes just after Ballerini scored her very first GRAMMY nomination as one of the 2017 Best New Artist contenders. ET caught up with the 23-year-old singer-songwriter on Thursday to dish on pre-nomination jitters, congratulatory texts from pal Taylor Swift and her red carpet vision for the big day!
ET: You just recorded vocals for Blaze and the Monster Machines. Tell me about that experience in the studio.
Kelsea Ballerini: It's so fun! I mean, I'm in this place in my life where I'm trying to kinda try a lot of new things, because why not? I've always loved animated movies and shows so I was kinda interested for a while in being a part of something like it, and then Nickelodeon reached out about being a part of Blaze and the Monster Machines. I was like, 'How cute is that? Yes, obviously!' And I got there and I was super nervous because I'd never done it before, but I got to be a little toucan! I feel like if I was an actual animal, I would probably be a toucan, so it worked out well.
You're obviously no stranger to being in the studio, but how was this experience different? Were there any unexpected challenges in voicing a character?
What I found was, they just want a very amplified version of yourself. I'm naturally pretty bubbly and all that, so they just wanted that on steroids.
Who is your favorite animated character of all time?
I'm a huge SpongeBob fan! The guy who voices Patrick [Bill Fagerbakke] was actually in the studio yesterday and I had a mini panic attack about it. But I'm also a huge, huge, huge Olaf fan. [laughs] I think Olaf is the absolute cutest character that's ever existed.
More Nick Jr.: Blaze and the Monster Machines ‘Race to the Top of the World’ Official Game Trailer!
You can read Entertainment Tonight's fantastic interview with Kelsea Ballerini in full here on etonline.com!
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