Morgan Evans

Decades before making it big in Nashville, Evans was born in Newcastle, Australia, where he saw a Keith Urban show and knew he wanted to perform country music as a career.

Though Evans didn’t make the move to Music City until 2015, he was already a big name in his home country, thanks to the release of his 2014 self-titled debut album. The country crooner recalled to Everything Nash in 2020 that the transition to Nashville was a “lonely” one at first — until he met future wife Kelsea Ballerini in 2016, when the two cohosted Australia’s Country Music Channel Awards together.

The couple got engaged after less than a year of dating and tied the knot in December 2017.

At the same time, Evans’ career was heating up. He dropped his sophomore album, Things That We Drink To, in October 2018 — a record that went on to score him the Best Country Album at the 2019 ARIA Music Awards, Australia’s answer to the Grammys.

Three years later, however, the “Kiss Somebody” singer’s personal life hit a snag when Ballerini announced in August 2022 that she and Evans had split. The former couple settled their divorce in November 2022.