Kelsea Ballerini To Join Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood & Country Stars At 2016 CMA Fest

Access Hollywood can exclusively report that country-pop singer Kelsea Ballerini has been added to the star-studded lineup for the 2016 CMA Music Festival in Nashville, which will run June 9-12.

The 22-year-old will take the stage on opening night. She joins previously announced acts such as Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Sam Hunt, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts, Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood and Hank Williams Jr., who will all perform during the festival’s first two nights.

A rising star, Kelsea was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2015 CMA Awards, and her current single “Peter Pan,” from her 2015 debut album “The First Time,” is currently receiving airplay on country radio.

PHOTOS: See Kelsea and other country music stars on the 2015 CMA Red carpet! 

The 2016 CMA Music Festival will feature hundreds of country artists, many of whom perform for free. According to the festival’s website, by waiving their performance fee, these artists and the fans who buy tickets to the event allows “CMA [to] donate half the net proceeds from the event to benefit music education programs on behalf of the artists and celebrities.”

According to a 2016 press release, “since 2006, CMA and the CMA Foundation have donated more than $13.6 million to support sustainable music education initiatives across the country.”

2016 also marks the 13th consecutive year the CMA Music Festival will be filmed for network television, with this year’s event to be aired on ABC.

Kelsea is also doing a live Twitter chat on Tuesday, March 22, at 5PM ET/2PM PT, taking over CMA’s Twitter account @CountryMusic for #KelseaCMAchat.

For more information on the CMA music festival, fans can visit the official festival website often, as new acts and musicians are being still be added for the festival dates.

Country music fans can learn more about Kelsea and listen to her music on her YouTube channel (video below)