Kelsea Ballerini and The Chainsmokers’ duet, “This Feeling,” is finally out. The lyric video of the song was released on YouTube on Sept. 18.
Ballerini kicks off the track, which begins, “I’ll tell you a story, before it tells itself / I’ll lay out all my reasons you’ll say that I need help / We all got expectations, and sometimes they go wrong / But no one listens to me, so I put it in this song.” Although this is the first time the country star and the duo, made up of Alex Pall and Andrew Taggart, have worked together, both acts are mutual fans of each other.
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“I’ve literally said for like two years now, my dream collab is to work with these guys,” Ballerni told Beats 1 Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I love that they write their stuff. They’re songwriters, which I relate to so much and respect a whole lot. I love their stuff. I’ve covered it for a couple concerts too which is really fun. Last year, I was opening for a country band, namely Lady Antebellum, and I covered ‘Closer,’ and then I did an Instagram cover of ‘Paris.’ So yeah, super fanning you know.”
The Chainsmokers are a fan of Ballerini not only as a musician, but also as a human being.
“I feel like you look at her and you smile like she’s like such a happy person,” Pall said. “We got this video back, the video back for the song and just looking at her, she’s such a cutie.”
The Chainsmokers know the rhythmic tune might not be a fit on country radio – but then again, it could be.
“I think it’s been really cool because on country radio right now you have Chris Stapleton who’s soul country and then you have a Sam Hunt who is super R&B country,” said Pall. “Country music’s not just a traditional sound any more. There are so many different branches of it and I think having these kind of collaborations—people that have that stigma in their head of like ‘Oh its all about the truck,’ they’re like ‘Oh wait I like this song. That’s a country singer? Wait let me check out more.’ And it kind of opens the doors more, which is kind of sick.”
This isn’t the first time The Chainsmokers have collaborated with a country act. They previously recorded “Last Day Alive” with Florida Georgia Line, which was a Top 20 hit on the dance chart.
“This Feeling” is available for download or stream here.
Photo Credit: Getty images/Rick Diamond
