We couldn’t be more obsessed with these two or this song @KelseaBallerini and @halsey share how they came together to collaborate on “The Other Girl.” #HitStory pic.twitter.com/jtnFroZMBQ
— cmt (@CMT) May 1, 2020
When CMT.com sat down with Kelsea Ballerini and Halsey recently to talk about their hit song “the other girl,” the two artists shared their thoughts on why this collaboration came so naturally and how they convinced each other that they really, truly wanted to be part of it.
This is their CMT HitStory.
“We were in the studio in LA, and I was like, ’Just riff. Do whatever,’” Ballerini recalled of the studio session.
But before it got that far, it sounds like Ballerini and Halsey were a little shocked and humbled by the fact that they both wanted in on this duet about a lover and a mistress asking each other, Is it me? Is it you? Tell me who, who’s the other girl?
“When you played me this song in Los Angeles, I was totally blown away,” Halsey said. “And I remember being like, ’Yeah of course I’ll do it.’ And you were like, ’Okay but really?’ And I was like, ’Of course I’ll do it.’ And then you text me two weeks later, ’Hey I just wanted to check in.’ You didn’t believe that I really wanted to do it.”
Ballerini’s response to that? More disbelief. “I was like, ’Is this real? Do you really like it that much?’”
Halsey assured her that she knows enough to know a good song when it comes along. “I’ve done so many collaborations that I know right away if something’s right,” she said. “It was a matter of time for us to make a record together. This song’s perfect parts you, parts me.”
Ballerini wrote the tune with Ross Copperman and Shane McAnally. And she and Halsey performed it live for the first time during their CMT Crossroads.