Kelsea Ballerini is taking fans behind the scenes of the dreamy “HEARTFIRST” music video she debuted last year as she readied the release of her latest full-length album, Subject To Change. Ballerini’s “HEARTFIRST (The Making Of)” debuted on Monday (April 17). The music video features unforgettable scenes of the award-winning singer-songwriter free-falling through the clouds, riding a sky-high roller coaster and playing her guitar while sitting next to a tiger (“That's just the kind of risk that we take/ My head is yelling that I could get hurt/ But I'm gonna jump right in/ Baby, with my heart first”).
Ballerini released the upbeat, 90s country-inspired anthem last year to kick off her next era of music. She wrote the single with Karen Fairchild and Alysa Vanderheym, and it was produced by Julian Bunetta and Shane McAnally. Ballerini said at the time that she “chose ‘HEARTFIRST’ as the first single off the new project because I feel like it just sets the tone for everything I’m working on right now. It’s very warm, very breezy-feeling, very settled. That’s kind of the tone of the whole project that I’m working on, and I feel like ‘HEARTFIRST’ was the first step into that new world.
“It’s all about just following your heart (and) trusting your gut,” Ballerini previously explained of the song. “I really believe that nothing great happens in life unless you take the risk and you take a leap of faith, and that’s what this whole song is about.”
Watch Ballerini’s behind the scenes look at the “HEARTFIRST” video here, and rewatch the finished music video below.