16 Kelsea Ballerini Songs to Listen To Right Now
Kelsea Ballerini came onto the music scene in 2015 with The First Time, her debut album — a modern country album with pop influences.
In its first year, her lead single, Love Me Like You Mean It, landed at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, making her the first female artist to send a debut single to the top of that chart since Carrie Underwood in 2006.
Since then, she has released four albums and three EPs. Her newest album, Patterns, came out in late 2024, and received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Country album in 2026.
While Kelsea is largely classified as a contemporary country artist, she does an excellent job of blending pop and country, much like some of her musical influences. She cites Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Taylor Swift, and Shania Twain as just some of those influences. She even credited Taylor Swift’s debut album as the album to introduce her to country music. (So relatable.)
If you’re in the mood for a country-pop artist focused on storytelling and honest, relatable lyrics, Kelsea Ballerini may be the artist for you. Here are a few songs to check out.
1. Penthouse
On Valentine’s Day in 2023, Kelsea Ballerini released her second EP, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, an honest and raw retelling of her divorce from country singer Morgan Evans. One of the more popular songs, Penthouse, conveys all the messy emotions she felt from her relationship falling apart: heartbreak, anger, and then healing. It provides a relatable heartbreak anthem for fans at her shows and, at the same time, gives them an outlet to heal. There are two versions of this song, and I love both because, again, both versions point to her healing journey. They both reveal another layer of her songwriting with a deeper level of emotional intensity than her previous works. When the song builds to the bridge, her anger quickly turns to healing and acceptance. It’s a shift that draws fans in and invites them along the healing journey.
“It hurts putting shit in a box, and now we don’t talk / And it stings rolling up the welcome mat, knowing you got half.” The song cuts out for a moment, and then resumes dramatically with, “I kissed someone new last night.” This song remains a standout moment in Kelsea’s career.
2. Baggage
On her most recent album, Kelsea drops off the baggage she has carried from relationship to relationship. The album cover alone shows this message well — she’s sitting on top of a pile of suitcases. Instead of harping on her past relationships and all the baggage she’s bringing into her current relationship, she’s choosing to embrace her past and move forward. It’s a song of celebration, a song of hope. She celebrates the messiness of her past, flaws and all, and that’s a message that I really liked after her heartbreak EP.
3. Blindsided
Like Penthouse, this song focuses on the anger she felt during the crumbling of her marriage. In an interview preparing for her performance on Saturday Night Live in 2023, she confirmed the “Yeah, Sure, Okay” was a response to comments her ex-husband made, how he was blindsided, about their divorce.
This song showcases her incredible storytelling skills. Blindsided reflects rage, sadness, and healing all in one swoop. She interrupts the middle of the song with a spoken word over a small beat. She does this again at the 2:10 mark, including snippets from the music video that really capture the pain she went through in her relationship. It’s a subtle detail that broke my heart in two but ultimately won me over after a couple of listens.
4. HEARTFIRST
When I’m in need of a pick-me-up song, Kelsea’s SUBJECT TO CHANGE album is one of the first places I’ll go. Particularly her song HEARTFIRST. If you love Taylor Swift’s Fearless and Lover albums, this song (and album) should be the next song you listen to. Kelsea radiates joy and happiness and love in this song — just read some of the lyrics: “Could be forever, or we might break / That’s just the kind of risk that we take. My head is yellin’ that I could get hurt / But I’m gonna jump right in, baby, with my heart first.” This is a love song to turn on when you need to believe in love again.
5. Cowboys Cry Too (with Noah Kahan)
Men’s mental health is a topic that’s largely ignored in today’s society, especially in the U.S. South where mental health struggles are brushed under the rug. Noah Kahan was the perfect addition to this song with his typical repertoire including songs that talk openly about depression, loneliness, and addiction. Their voices blend together naturally. While the song can be a love song, I think the underlying message of men having to keep it together and hide their feelings remains the crux of the song.
“He stands his ground, he’s as stubborn as the weeds in the backyard / ‘Cause growing up he had to go where the wind blew / He hides his heart and hurt ‘cause he kinda had to / In a world that says, ‘Saddle up and be a man.’”
6. Dibs
Quite possibly one of the first songs of hers that I ever listened to in 2015. She captured fun and confidence and sassiness in this song, making it a fun and feel-good love song. This reminds me of Taylor Swift’s I’m Only Me When I’m With You — it’s disguised as a love song, but the light-heartedness can be perfect for rolling down your windows on a sunny summer day and riding down back roads in the country with your friends. For added lore, her dog (that recently passed away) was named after this song.
7. Homecoming queen?
If any song is underrated on this list, it’s this one. Although, I don’t think it’s all that underrated because it landed at No. 22 on the Country Airplay chart, making it her highest debut on the chart to date in 2019. When I first heard this song, I was struck with the raw, honest lyrics, something that I always had appreciated from her earlier works but was brought to a deeper level in this song. This follows a homecoming queen, and that despite the picture-perfect life she seems to lead, things may not be what they seem. The song structure follows traditional country music storytelling — like who this character was and what was happening to them.
8. We Broke Up
It’s a post-breakup, heartbreak anthem with a fun upbeat pop tune. My favourite! This song feels like catching your friends up on the breakup, going over the same details again and again. Her performance on tour invites fans to sing at the top of their lungs. One of my favourite parts about this song is that the track that immediately follows this one on the album is called WAIT, making it a direct response. Yes, they just broke up, but did they?
9. I Hate Love Songs
This was a fun, cheeky way of poking fun at romance cliches. In the song, she goes from dodging a wedding bouquet to getting drenched in the rain. As an avid rom-com enthusiast, I played this song on repeat. It shows that love doesn’t always have to be expressed through typical sappy moments or tropes. While not my favourite song of hers anymore, whenever I listen to this song, I’m reminded of the tremendous growth she’s had as a songwriter.
10. I Sit In Parks
Kelsea dropped her third EP, Mount Pleasant, in late 2025, and while it was a slow burn for me to warm up to, I keep coming back to it with more love and appreciation for her growth as a musician. This entire EP allows her to continue flexing her songwriting and storytelling skills. In this song, she explores the decisions she’s made in the past, specifically on motherhood and having a family. She reflects on watching a family in the park and wonders if she’s missed out on motherhood by focusing on her music career. She even says, “I wonder if she wants my freedom / Like I want to be a mother / But Rolling Stone says I’m on the right road.” It’s an honest and refreshing take on feminism and personal choice.
11. IF YOU GO DOWN (I’M GOIN’ DOWN TOO)
Not only do I mention this song for its fun and upbeat melody, but also for Kelsea’s colourful and rich performance at the CMTs in 2023. Dressed in bold, colourful 1950s attire with a similar set behind her, Kelsea brought drag queens onstage — a bold move considering CMT’s conservative audience. The song, like the performance, highlighted her playful country style and gave the song high energy choreography. It was a major highlight of the night.
12. Miss Me More
You have heartbreak songs, and then you have the type of songs I like to call “I’m doing fine without you” songs. Taylor Swift wrote Bejeweled, about not wanting to hide in the basement. Kelsea wrote Miss Me More and was commended for being more vulnerable in her songwriting. In the song, she fights to reclaim her identity after a controlling relationship. The song, released in 2017, starts to blend more pop, more than before, a shift that intimidated Kelsea but I’m so glad she took the leap.
13. Emerald City
If I had two nickels for every time a singer allegedly wrote a song about Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right? One of her most recent releases, Kelsea explores envy and comparison, particularly comparison to her boyfriend’s exes. She received quite a bit of flack online for comparing herself to other girls and how it might be putting down her boyfriend’s exes, but I think the topic of envy and comparison is a very real, very present topic that many struggle with. Kelsea was just one of the many artists who brought those feelings to life in a slow, melodic ballad.
14. Peter Pan
I love when my favourite artists write songs based on the childhood story Peter Pan — Taylor Swift (Peter), Maisie Peters (Wendy), and Kelsea Ballerini (Peter Pan). On her debut album, Kelsea wrote about a heartbreak over a “lost boy, with your head up in the clouds” — a sentiment that is relatable for young women. The song, like many of her hits, strikes that near-perfect balance of both country and pop sounds.
15. Half of My Hometown (feat. Kenny Chesney)
Kelsea’s 2020 album doesn’t get nearly enough attention as her second EP and most recent album. In her self-titled album, she stays true to her country music roots, even partnering with Kenny Chesney on a duet. The storytelling makes me nostalgic for Taylor Swift’s debut album.
16. Love Me Like You Mean It
If you ask me, this is Kelsea’s breakout song. On her debut album, this single peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. As a fan of Taylor Swift and Shania Twain, the country pop blend and song’s message drew me in. Kelsea is singing about a young woman with feelings for a man — “boy with your hat back, I kinda like that.” But she doesn’t chase him. She lays out her feelings and asks him to come to her, a subtle move for feminism. I loved this song in 2015 and loved it even more when she released a reimagined version in 2025 that’s much more stripped down and shows her lower voice range and alto tone. The original helped establish her as a country artist who blends modern pop sounds with traditional country, and the reimagined version conveys her tremendous growth as a singer.
I can go on and on about each and every song of hers, explaining the intricacies and emotional layers of her songwriting. But for the sake of word counts, these 16 songs can serve as a starter if you are looking to get into Kelsea Ballerini’s music. If you’re a big fan of Taylor Swift, Lainey Wilson, and Shania Twain, and even pop artists like Maisie Peters, then Kelsea Ballerini may be the next country/pop artist you listen to.
