Kelsea Ballerini Speaks Out About Friendships With Fellow Stars Amid Halsey Rumors

Kelsea Ballerini is denying any “shade” surrounding a lyric that hinted at a fallout with Halsey.

By Angie Orellana Hernandez Sep 30, 2022 9:34 PMTags
Watch: Kelsea Ballerini Implies Rift With Halsey in New Song

Kelsea Ballerini is clarifying the meaning behind one eyebrow-raising lyric.

The country star is denying any animosity toward a potential reference to Halsey in her song "Doin' My Best, where the singer hints at a broken friendship with a former collaborator.

The track contains the lyrics, "I was friends with a pop star / I put 'em on track four, but / Wish I could take it back, I woulda never asked / If I knew we wouldn't talk anymore," which fans speculated could be the "Gasoline" singer, who joined Kelsea on "The Other Girl," the fourth track on her 2020 album, Kelsea.

However, Kelsea recently shared that the lyric wasn't singling anyone in particular out but was meant to reflect the difficult nature of having friends within the music industry.

"I hope people interpret that line like it was meant to be, which is no shade at all," she said during Amazon Music's Country Heat Weekly on Sept. 29. "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 is going to get your life like another artist does. And then, sometimes, that becomes really awkward and sometimes there's competition involved."

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She added, "Then sometimes you try to do something together, cause they're your friend and you want to share art together. And then you introduce business into it, and it just messes everything up."

Kelsea also shared the hard truths she's learned being friends with other musical artists.

"I think at first I had this idea as a woman in country music that I had to be like 'Oh my god, OK. Everyone come over, let's all be best friends. Let's have a sleepover, let's paint each other's nails'" she explained. "And it was not the vibe. It's not the vibe."

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The "Roses" singer added that she's come to terms with having "different tiers" of friendships, such as people who she'll support at concerts, but isn't necessarily too close with.

Instead, Kelsea is leaning into the friendships that she said are "genuine" and "aren't always on camera and for display," such as the "ride or die" relationships she has with Carly Pearce and Kelly Clarkson

She said, "The way that I choose to empower women in music is to feed those friendships."

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