Watch Kelsea Ballerini’s Emotional Video for Her New Single, ‘Homecoming Queen?’

Kelsea Ballerini just dropped her new single, “homecoming queen?,” as well as an emotional video for the powerful new tune. The song is the debut track from her upcoming third studio album.

In the video, Ballerini begins decked out in a sparkling red dress and matching thigh-high boots, iin a dressing room adorned with clothes and flowers, fitting for a celebrity. Ballerini remains seated in the same chair through the entire video, but by the end, the room is bare, and Ballerini, in tears, is in a stark room, wearing a sweatshirt and pants, without any make-up, as the camera spins around her.

“The idea of going from glam to just raw and real was what the whole video was built around,” Ballerini told CMT. “It was for that moment. That was definitely the moment where we wanted that reveal for people to understand what it’s all about. Every time I play it for someone, that’s always the moment when they get it. And that’s the reaction we wanted. We want people to get it then.”

The Tennessee native expressed her genuine emotions at the end of the “homecoming queen?” video, as her eyes fill with tears – a moment that surprised even her.

“I’m not an actress,” Ballerini insisted. “It’s really hard for me to emote with cameras on me. It’s just not my thing. We had done that last take a couple of times, and Shane Drake the director came in. I was sitting in the chair and he knelt down with me, and said, ‘Hey, we have what we need. We’re totally covered. It’s a great video. We’re gonna do one more just in case. And I know you wrote the song, and I just want to know why you wrote it.’ And he walked out.

“Immediately I went back to that place where I was feeling really insecure and really vulnerable and unsure of a lot in my life,” she continued. “I just checked into that girl, and wept. Hard. As soon as I was done, instead of them yelling ‘cut,’ it was just quiet and I walked out of the room.”

Ballerini wrote the song with Jimmy Robbins and Nicolle Galyon, with the message for Ballerini as much as it is for her fans.

“Permission is the word that we always use,” Ballerini said. “It’s really about allowing yourself to feel. And that can be happy and that can be sad. Either way, it’s okay. For me, being someone who overshares a lot of their life, I do get scared sometimes to maybe show that I’m having a bad day or show that comments hurt my feelings sometimes.

“Everyone’s human,” she added. “It’s important for people to know that we’re all allowed to break down, we’re allowed to have bad days, and we don’t always have thick skin.”

Download or stream “homecoming queen?” at KelseaBallerini.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images / Terry Wyatt