“HEARTFIRST” by Kelsea Ballerini
“HEARTFIRST” is based on a love-at-first-sight type of scenario, or perhaps we can say lust at first sight, depending on one’s perspective. What happens, as it appears, is that the vocalist hooks up with a previously-unknown guy at a party who is mutually attracted to her. They end up making out, and it is implied that they proceed to take it all the way. Said implication comes primarily via the revelation that the vocalist’s own conscience is telling her “to slow down”. But as revealed in the chorus, she rather opts to “jump right in… heart first”, i.e. throw caution to the wind in the name of instant romantic gratification.
That is to say that, of course she has no idea how things will turn out with this guy in the long run. As Kelsea muses in the second verse, he may end up being someone she ‘wishes she never knew’, or he can turn out to be the one. But in any event, she decides to let fate handle the matter, so to speak. And that’s because in this case, the vocalist has given her “heart” precedence over her “head”.
Release Date of “HEARTFIRST”
“HEARTFIRST” was made public on 8 April 2022, unassociated with any album at the time.
The songstress seems to have first teased this track during the Grammy Awards, which were held a few days earlier. Then, she got around to actually debuting it on 11 April. The debut occurred during the CMT Music Awards. This was an event she also co-hosted (from home).
Credits
Kelsea was assisted in writing this piece by Karen Fairchild and Alysa Vanderheym. Its producers are Julian Bunetta alongside Shane McAnally, the latter of whom seems to be all over the country music scene of late.
