Songfacts®:

• The title track of Kygo's second album, this big and bright rock ballad features American band The Night Game and Swedish singer-songwriter Maja Francis. The song was released as the record's lead single on October 20, 2017.
• The song was written by Kygo and Boys Like Girls frontman Martin Johnson, whose other credits include Jason Derulo's "The Other Side" and Avril Lavigne's "Here's To Never Growing Up." The Norwegian producer explained to Billboard:
  
  "I played him some music, some old school stuff, like Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin',' cause I'm super inspired by those old school tracks, and I told him I wanted to do something like this, like something in that kinda area."
  
  It was Johnson who came up with the lyrics including the titular "kids in love," which Kygo felt was just what he was looking for. "It's just so powerful," he explained. "It's just about being super passionate about someone or something and I'm super passionate about music and I felt like 'Kids in Love' was just a great name for it."
• Kygo said that when he heard Johnson's lyrics, he imagined a younger version of himself playing piano in his mother's house. "Being a kid in love is that concept of being super-passionate about someone or something," he recalled. "I've been [super-passionate] about playing the piano since I was 6 years old, whenever I make a song or melody that I really like, I feel like a kid in love."
• When Kygo was collaborating with Johnson on "Kids in Love," he was also working on "It Ain't Me," his hit single with Selena Gomez. "So actually on the same day I kinda wrote two of my favorite songs I've ever done," he said "so that was a pretty efficient day in the studio."