Kelsea Ballerini Reveals Tribute To Late 'Soul Dog' Was A Sweet 'Surprise'

Kelsea Ballerini’s recent tribute to her late dog — a heart with his name in it, sewn on the inside of her Grammy Awards gown — was a sweet surprise for the country superstar.

Ballerini, 32, guided Cosmopolitan through her process to get ready for the show, which took place on Sunday (February 1) at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. In an article published on Tuesday (February 3), Ballerini said: “This was a surprise touch from the designers and my stylists at our final fitting. I lost my soul dog, Dibs, a few weeks ago, and having him close to my heart for the night made it feel more sentimental. A beautiful reminder he’s always with me.”

The Patterns artist first opened up about her dog’s inoperable heart cancer in August 2024. Last month, Ballerini shared that Dibs “went to doggy heaven” on January 7 after a battle with cancer that lasted more than a year. Ballerini spent about a decade with him. Dibs, named after Ballerini’s hit single that released in 2015, “spent his last few days in his backyard looking at the sunshine and surrounded and visited by his forever people,” Ballerini said. “There are no words to articulate his role in my life, but I couldn’t have done the last ten years without him, and he will always be my soul dog…and I pray and believe we’ll find each other in every life. His love and reach can’t be captured in an Instagram photo dump, or in a caption, but here’s a look at some happy from Dibs. Thank you for loving him so loudly with me. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world that I got to be his dog mom, greatest gift of my life.”