Kelsea Ballerini is spilling the tea, or singing it, I should say.
In her latest Valentine’s Day EP release of Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, Kelsea singlehandedly responds to ex-husband Morgan Evans heartbreaking ballad, “Over For You,” in a series of songs about their crumbling marriage.
Because the two are both in the industry, listeners have basically had a front-row seat to them spewing their emotions through lyric ingenuity. But this is Kelsea’s most outright response yet, and it’s highly likely that it emerged from hearing Morgan’s song, because she offers some rather direct counterarguments.
Morgan Evans’ “Over For You” introductory line asks, “How long have you been waiting to take our pictures down,” and it’s a downhill emotional spiral from there. He asks a lot of other personal questions of his now ex-wife, like when she started to feel broken and why she didn’t come to him sooner, and even if there was someone else all along.
The chorus cleverly begins with Morgan expressing “I would have searched the whole world over for you,” before wrapping with the parallel line, “How long has it been over for you?”
Kelsea’s response was far from contrite.
Instead, the “Peter Pan” singer seems much more at peace in her EP. Compared to Morgan’s song about the two, it seems that Kelsea is prioritizing healing and is no longer pondering the question, “why?”
But that doesn’t stop her from answering Morgan’s questions quite clearly in her own thread of songs.
In her opening song titled, “Mountain With A View,” Kelsea responds with some of her own views on the downfall of their matrimony. She paints an image of herself waking up in Big Sur, eating alone at a table made for two, and asking herself why she isn’t missing her better half.
The verse goes on to share that the two lovers don’t even keep up with one another or truly know where the other is at, before she summarizes the breakdown in the chorus:
“I’m wearin’ the ring still, but I think I’m lyin’
Sometimes you forget yours, I think we’re done tryin’
I realize you loved me much more at twenty-three
I think that this is when it’s over for me…”
It’s easy to spot the quippy one liner she summarizes her chorus with, making sure to let listeners and Morgan know this is her rebuttal – as if we didn’t already know.
Her concluding bridge takes the narrative a step farther from previous interviews where she kindly shared that “the glitter just wore off” in their relationship:
“I’m takin’ the ring off, I’m finally cryin’
Don’t try to find yours, no reason to fight it
You’ll say I’m crazy for bein’ the one to leave
Scream I’m just like my parents and givin’ up easy
But you never took that last flight to see me
Looks like our ending ain’t endin’ happily
I think that this is when it’s over for me…”
Other songs from the EP like “Penthouse” also respond to Morgan lines.
For example, he says, “It’s killin’ me to know this house ain’t a home,” while Kelsea implies, they were only “playing home in a penthouse.”
At this rate this divorce is more like a soap opera, but in song form.
We are just waiting for the next episode to drop while also wondering if the network will pick it up for a new season, but I gotta say, the suspense had me tuning in for everything Kelsea had to say in her new Morgan-themed EP while trying to decipher the chaos.
