Kelsea Ballerini Runs Offstage to Smooch Chase Stokes Before Singing 'Kissed Someone New Last Night' Lyric

Kelsea Ballerini is turning her breakup ballads into a chance for romance in front of thousands of people. 

Mid-set on her Heartfirst Tour in Seattle on Saturday, the 29-year-old country pop singer ran off stage to plant a kiss on Chase Stokes — who is best known for his starring role in Netflix's Outer Banks and budding romance with Ballerini since her divorce from Morgan Evans. 

The singer took her smooch break during the song “Penthouse,” which alludes to the Nashville condo she shared with Evans, 38, before they called it quits in August 2022. They had been married for almost five years. 

What started as a gut-wrenching tune centered around the dissolution of her marriage turned into a hopeful ballad of healing with a lyric change Ballerini debuted last month. Instead of the original line "But now I don't know where you’re sleeping, baby," the singer has created the self-dubbed "healing version," where she instead sings "And now I don’t care where you’re sleeping, baby."

The song from her latest EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat also includes other attempts to capture the messiness of moving on after a failed relationship, including one that the singer took quite literally on Saturday.

In a TikTok video posted by a fan the following day, Ballerini emerges from her backstage makeout session to sing “I kissed someone new last night,” all while pointing to the 30-year-old Netflix star. 

Ballerini and Stokes are still pretty new to the relationship scene, with rumors of their relationship surfacing at the beginning of this year. When a group photo emerged of the pair at a Georgia vs. TCU game, nothing was set in stone, but it was hard for fans to deny the blooming relationship when Stokes posted a “soft launch” of Ballerini on his own feed a couple of days later. 

In a 2023 interview ahead of the latest season of Outer Banks, Stokes told PEOPLE the two were hanging out with each other. "Kelsea is a lovely, lovely girl. She's great. We're having a good time," he added. 

It wasn't until April that the pair got a little more candid about their relationship status while posing and smiling together on the CMT Awards red carpet, where they made their official couple debut.

Now that the Tell Me Your Secrets actor has officially accepted his role as Ballerini’s “Golden Retriever Boyfriend,” it’s safe to assume he’ll be making more side stage appearances at Ballerini’s shows — especially if she intends on making those kiss breaks a habit.