Kelsea Ballerini Opens up About Vulnerable ‘Homecoming Queen?’ Video

Kelsea Ballerini is opening up about the vulnerable video for her latest single, “homecoming queen?” In the video, Ballerini starts out decked out like the celebrity she is, but by the end, Ballerini is sitting alone in a chair, crying.

“I’ve learned there’s a lot of strength in vulnerability,” Ballerini shared on Instagram. “I’ve learned that cliché catchphrase ‘nobody is perfect’ is actually true and when we let ourselves believe it we get freedom from ourselves. I’ve learned that I’m allowed to be happy, glittery, bold, sassy, and to never apologize for that side of myself.

“I’ve learned to also give myself permission to have a bad day, to feel insecure, to still be discovering who I am as a young woman, and to unzip the mess,” she continued. I was never the literal homecoming queen. But damn, I am this homecoming queen.”

Ballerini previously revealed how the video for “homecoming queen?” ended with real, authentic tears from the singer.

“I’m not an actress,” Ballerini told CMT. “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.”

The video for “homecoming queen?” takes viewers on an unexpected journey, which Ballerini said was necessary to capture the essence of the song.

“The idea of going from glam to just raw and real was what the whole video was built around,” Ballerini acknowledged. “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.”

Download or stream “homecoming queen?” by visiting her website.

Photo Credit: Getty images / Robby Klein