Kelsea Ballerini Collaborations: How ‘The Other Girl’ With Halsey Broke Barriers

Kelsea Ballerini and Halsey shocked the world when they collaborated in 2020 on the song “the other girl” (styled in all lowercase letters). Its release was a groundbreaking moment that challenged traditional genre boundaries and showed how rapidly country music is evolving. We'll take a closer look at how two artists from different musical backgrounds came together to create music that resonated with a variety of fans.  

Ballerini met Halsey in 2018 when she attended the pop singer's Nashville show with friends. Ballerini went backstage after the concert, and Halsey suggested they go out together. They headed to nearby Santa's Pub and surprised onlookers with a karaoke duet of Fleetwood Mac's “Landslide.” The new friends then went to Ballerini's place, where Halsey shared an early version of “Without Me.”

Three weeks later, Ballerini wrote “the other girl” with fellow songwriters Shane McAnally and Ross Copperman during a run of shows with Keith Urban. She thought the song would work perfectly as a duet and decided to pitch it to her new pal Halsey. Ballerini shared the track with Halsey in Los Angeles, and her new friend jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the song.

“I've never had a collaboration on an album before,” Ballerini told Billboard. “I only wanted one if it was someone that I was real-life friends with because you end up spending so much time with them, with the music video and the performances and the press and all that. I was like, ‘I just want to do it with someone that I enjoy spending time with.'”

During her interview with Billboard, Ballerini also said collaborating with a female appealed to her because “you don't see it much.” It's true that especially in the country scene, all-male or male-female collaborations are more common.

In fact, in 1993, Reba McEntire struggled to convince her record label to let her do a duet with Linda Davis. She persisted, and they won a GRAMMY for “Does He Love You.” Miranda Lambert has released several duets with other women, including “Somethin' Bad” with Carrie Underwood, “Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)” with Elle King, and “Good Horses” with Lainey Wilson. In 2021, Loretta Lynn enlisted Tanya Tucker for a reworking of her classic song “You Ain't Woman Enough.”

The song's theme is progressive, with the vocalists joining forces against their cheating partner rather than accepting the traditional position of rivals. The Kelsea Ballerini-Halsey collaboration is also a little different from earlier all-female pairings, as Halsey uses she/they pronouns. While they told The Advocate they don't identify as nonbinary or gender-fluid, they have also been open about not fitting within the standard gender binary. "I've always really identified with being an androgynous performer,” they said. Halsey's unique gender identity makes their collaboration with Ballerini even more revolutionary.

The star power of Ballerini and Halsey helped “the other girl” perform well on the pop and country charts. Its chart results included:

It also went Gold in the United States and Canada. These chart results prove the crossover appeal of Ballerini and Halsey's collaboration and the acceptance of artists changing their sound to try something new. Despite its broad appeal, “the other girl” was Ballerini's first single to not be in the top 40 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

“the other girl” received mixed reviews from the critics. Tom Roland of Billboard said the story about two women realizing they're being manipulated by the same lover was “handled with realistic intrigue in the lyrics, but imbued with plenty of catchy moments, particularly a bouncy post-chorus that lingers in the listener's mind for hours after hearing it.” Rolling Stone called the “mesmerizing collab” one of the year's best pop collaborations.

However, Spectrum Pulse reported, “the lumpy bass beat, faded buzzing effects, and overmixed percussion that holds back from a decent melody coming to the forefront.” There was also criticism that the song wasn't country enough, which Ballerini addressed when her performance of the song at the Country Music Television Awards won Performance of the Year at the 2021 awards.

“There was a lot of chatter on ‘categorically' what genre this song did or didn't fit into. And the fact that you voted this as the winning performance tells me that you know where my roots are and that you know who I am,” she said during her acceptance speech. “But it also tells me that you hear music as music and tells me that you love when people push boundaries and explore artistry. As I make a new record, that means the absolute world to me.”

Since the release of “the other girl,” we've seen several pop-country crossover collaborations, including Chris Stapleton and Adele teaming up in 2021 to rerecord her song “Easy on Me.” Ed Sheeran and Luke Combs released “Life Goes On” in 2023, and Teddy Swims and Thomas Rhett combined their talents on “Broke” in 2020 and “Something ‘Bout a Woman” in 2024. Later, Ballerini collaborated with other pop acts, including singles with Noah Kahan, LANY, and Kelly Clarkson. Halsey also released another country partnership with Jelly Roll.

With every successful cross-genre collaboration, artists seem to feel more freedom to unexpectedly team up with creatives outside their genre. Streaming has also made it easier for audiophiles to discover new artists and types of music. As these trends continue, we may see traditional genre classifications become less rigid or abandoned entirely as artists experiment and create fresh sounds.