Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great, new songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we shine the spotlight on country singer Kelsea Ballerini and her current hit, “Legends,” a song that uses a gilded phrase to illustrate an epic romance.
In the song’s first line, she sings, “We were golden, we were fire, we were magic / Yeah, and they all knew our names all over town / We had it made in the middle of the madness / We were neon in a grey crowd.”
The 24-year-old newlywed said “Legends” was originally a breakup song, but now she views it as a love song. She penned it when a previous relationship was on the rocks. Ironically, the song hit the airwaves two years later while she was planning her wedding to Australian country singer Morgan Evans. The couple tied the knot in December.
“I wrote it when I was going through a breakup, so that was the heart and the perspective that it came from,” the Grammy-nominated “Best New Artist” for 2017 told The Boot. “But as I’ve lived with it, it’s kind of changed meanings. It’s a chameleon song for me. It’s still a story about heartbreak, but now I’m in a very good place in my life and I sing it as a love song.”
Released in June of 2017, “Legends” is the lead single from Ballerini’s second studio album, Unapologetically. The song ascended to #11 this week on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It also hit #3 on Billboard‘s Canada Country chart.
Ballerini was raised in Knoxville, Tenn., and wrote her first song at the age of 12. She went to college in Nashville, but left school after two years to pursue a music career. At the age of 19, she signed a record deal with Black River Entertainment. She released her debut single “Love Me Like You Mean It” in 2014 and was named one of CMT’s Next Women of Country that same year.
Ballerina’s career got a big boost when superstar Taylor Swift tweeted about how much she enjoyed Ballerini’s self-titled EP.
“To have someone that you’ve looked up to for a long time admire your stuff and admire what you do is just a really big deal,” she told TasteofCountry.com.
Please check out the video of Ballerini’s acoustic version of “Legends,” which she performed for Radio Disney. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Legends”
Written by Kelsea Ballerini, Forest Glen Whitehead and Hillary Lee Lindsey. Performed by Kelsea Ballerini.
We were golden, we were fire, we were magic
Yeah, and they all knew our names all over town
We had it made in the middle of the madness
We were neon in a grey crowd
Yeah, we wrote our own story
Full of blood sweat and heartbeats
We didn’t do it for the fame or the glory
And but we went down in history
Yeah, we were legends
Loving you, baby, it was heaven
What everyone wondered, we’d never question
Close our eyes and took on the world together
Do you remember?
We were crazy
Tragic and epic and so amazing
I’ll always wear the crown that you gave me
We will always stay lost in forever
And they’ll remember
We were legends
Like we were written down in permanent marker
Not even the brightest sun could ever fade
Come whichever hell or high water
It was always me and you either way
Hey, we wrote our own story
Full of blood sweat and heartbeats
We didn’t do it for the fame or the glory
We just did it for you and me
And that’s why we were legends
Loving you, baby, it was heaven
What everyone wondered, we’d never question
Close our eyes and took on the world together
Do you remember?
We were crazy
Tragic and epic and so amazing
I’ll always wear the crown that you gave me
We will always stay lost in forever
And they’ll remember
We were legends
We were legends
Loving you, baby, it was heaven
What everyone wondered, we’d never question
Close our eyes and took on the world together
Do you remember, baby?
We were crazy
Tragic and epic and so amazing
I’ll always wear the crown that you gave me
We will always stay lost in forever
And they’ll remember
We were legends
We were, yeah, we were legends
Yeah, we wrote our own story
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com.