Her debut single “Love Me Like You Mean It” topped the Billboard Hot Country Airplay charts and the Mediabase Country Airplay charts, where she became the first female solo performer in nine years to hit No. 1 with her breakthrough single; moreover, Ballerini is only one of 11 women to have ever hit the top spot on the Billboard country charts with a debut song. “That was pretty crazy,” she said with a sweet laugh. “I am so excited. It has been a crazy whirlwind of a year. I did not know or think that it would do as well as it did. To see it go all the way to the top is pretty awesome.”
Ballerini’s latest radio single is “Dibs,” which was the most-added song nationwide on country radio. She co-wrote the song with her “guy friends,” songwriters Josh Kerr, Ryan Griffin and Jason Duke. “The song was written as an accident. We were just messing around with the word ‘Dibs’ and wrote the song in 45 minutes. It is a feel-good summer song and it is sassy and it has the confidence that ‘Love Me Like You Mean It’ has. We thought it was the perfect follow-up for the first single,” she said.
She listed “Peter Pan” as her personal favorite song on her debut album, The First Time, on Black River Entertainment. She shared that she wrote the title track, “The First Time,” solely by herself.
Last week, Ballerini headlined at Gramercy Theatre in New York City, where she shared the stage with singer-songwriter Levi Hummon. “Levi is so great, and he is about to launch on Big Machine Records. He is a dear friend, he is so talented and I am really excited for him,” she said.
On the following day after her Gramercy show, Ballerini performed on Fox & Friend’s “All American Summer Concert Series.” “It was great. The Chattanooga situation happened on the night before and it was heartbreaking. We sang ‘Amazing Grace’ as a tribute for the people that were killed. It was a special moment that ended up happening and I was excited to honor those people in Chattanooga,” she said.
She listed Gavin DeGraw, Imagine Dragons and Brett Eldredge as her dream male collaboration choices. When asked if she would ever record a duet with pop group 98 Degrees, she said, “That would be fun. That’s a good one.” This would fare well with the 90s medley section that she performs in her live shows.
Ballerini praised label-mate, fellow country singer John King for being “awesome.” “John is a sweetheart. I love him,” she said.
For her fans, she concluded, “Thank you for an amazing year and for all the support on the single and the album, and for saying ‘hey’ and for being awesome.”
