Why Kelsea Ballerini Has at Least 1 Solo-Written Track on Each Project

Kelsea Ballerini “holding [herself] accountable” as a country songwriter, creating at least one original for each album. Here’s what she said about 2023’s Rolling Up the Welcome Mat and its song “Blindsided.”

Does Kelsea Ballerini write her own music?

She’s the country artist behind “This Feeling,” “I Quit Drinking,” and “Half of my Hometown.” Ballerini is also the songwriter (and sometimes co-producer) behind the six-song EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, released in 2023. Most notably, the artist features at least one original song on every album. 

“Songwriting is my favorite part of what I do…,” she said via Music Row. “In the same breath, I want to honor myself and trust myself to be able to take an idea all the way through and not always rely on other people. Doing one solo write on each record is just my way of holding myself accountable to that.”

Kelsea Ballerini on the importance of creating solo music

Ballerini does have a reputation in the country scene, known for her blonde hair and honest lyrics. Although she doesn’t write every song, Ballerini prides herself on being a songwriter and producer of her music.

“I have this insecurity that because I’m blonde and I’m glittery, and I like production, that people don’t take me seriously as a songwriter,” she said during an interview with the New York Times. Specifically with her solo song “Blindsided,” “the underlying tone is, ‘Hey, I did this by myself. I didn’t have a man in the room.’”

Songwriter Alysa Vanderheym partnered with Kelsea Ballerini for ‘Blindsided’ 

Since its debut, “Blindsided” became a fan-favorite from Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, earning over 10 million Spotify plays. This was a song co-written and co-produced by Ballerini and Alysa Vanderheym.

“She knew exactly what she wanted to say — she had her titles, her concepts,” she said in a phone interview. “It’s so unfiltered — she just went there, she didn’t even second guess it — which is so inspiring to me.”

With this album, in particular, Ballerini shared insight into her divorce from Australian country artist Morgan Evans. The artist shared that through long distance strain, the relationship began to deteriorate. 

“I’d go write a song, and you’d go for a walk,” the artist sings. “We had to get drunk to ever really talk / I told you what I needed, didn’t have to read my mind / So, were you blindsided or were you just blind?”

That tension is also described in “Blindsided,” where the narrator describes miscommunication and fights that eventually lead to something bigger. However, when asked in the same New York Times interview if this was created in response to Evans’ “Over For You.”

“I don’t know if I would have written a song like ‘Blindsided’ had I not been responding to something that was already out there,” she noted.