Kelsea Ballerini Responds to Fan Reaction After Appearing to Shade Halsey in New Song

Kelsea Ballerini responded to the fan reaction to “Doin’ My Best,” a track on her new album Subject to Change that appears to shade Halsey. The track specifically refers to a pop star who appeared on “track four” of a previous album, which points to Halsey. The singers worked together on “The Other Girl,” which was the fourth song on Ballerini’s 2020 album Kelsea.

“It’s not a diss track and I feel like I need to specify that,” Ballerini said in a CBS Mornings interview, via Entertainment Tonight. “Sometimes when you mix friendship and career and work, I guess it gets weird and I essentially lost a friend.” Ballerini, who did not name Halsey, added that she “wildly” respects the singer she was referencing and the friendship she had with them, and wished “nothing but the best” for them.

In “Doin’ My Best,” Ballerini, 29, sang about being friends with a pop star. “I put ’em on track four, but wish I could take it back,” she sang. “I woulda never asked if I knew we wouldn’t talk anymore.” Halsey and Ballerini collaborated on “The Other Girl,” which appeared on Kelsea. They performed the song live at the CMT Awards and on CMT Crossroads in 2020. Halsey has not commented on the song and she does not appear on Ballerini’s new album.

During a stop on Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast, Ballerini said she almost did not include “Doin’ My Best” on the album. She said she needed a “hard conversation with myself” before ultimately deciding to include the highly personal song. The lyrics also reference her trips to therapy with Morgan Evans, from whom she filed for divorce in August after five years of marriage.

“I hope people interpret that line like it was meant to be, which is no shade at all, it’s just saying that one of the things I’ve had to navigate is naturally you want to become friends with other artists because no one’s gonna get your life like another artist does,” Ballerini said of the song on the podcast, via PEOPLE. “And then sometimes that becomes really awkward and sometimes there’s competition involved and sometimes you try to like, do something together cause they’re your friend and you want to share art together and you introduce business into it and it just messes everything up. That was kind of what I was trying to say, so I hope it gets interpreted that way.”

Subject to Change was released on Sept. 23 and includes the single “Heartfirst.” The album does include a song featuring other stars. “You’re Drunk, Go Home” includes guest vocals from Kelly Clarkson and Carly Pearce. Ballerini co-wrote every song on the album, which features many other references to her divorce from Evans.

“It’s easy to shame yourself and it’s easy to want to hide and I just want to be proud of myself in 10 years on this season of my life,” Ballerini told CBS Mornings. “This is not just a heavy time in my life, this is also a celebratory time in my life. I don’t want to shade that because that’s important to feel.”