Songfacts®:

• "This Feeling" finds The Chainsmokers teaming up with Kelsea Ballerini. The country star and Chainsmokers vocalist Andrew Taggart sing about disagreeing with friends about a love interest.
  
  They tell me think with my head, not that thing in my chest
  They got their hands at my neck this time
  But you're the one that I want, if that's really so wrong
  Then they don't know what this feeling is like
  
  They are so lovestruck, they don't care what their friends think about their romance.
• The Chainsmokers' Alex Pall told Beats 1's Zane Lowe that when they sent "This Feeling" to Ballerini, she replied straight away saying she loved the song and she's in. Their collaboration isn't surprising: When Ballerini was opening for Lady Antebellum in 2017 she covered the Chainsmokers' "Closer" and then did an Instagram version of another of their songs, "Paris."
• The Chainsmokers have previous form collaborating with a country act. Back in 2017 they hooked up with Florida Georgia Line for the duet "Last Day Alive."
• Country crossover collaborations were quite the flavor when this was recorded in 2018. Other pairings released the same year included Hot 100 Top 10 tunes by Maren Morris with Zedd ("The Middle") and Florida Georgia Line with Bebe Rexha ("Meant to Be").
  
  "Country music's not just like a traditional sound anymore; there's, like, so many different branches of it," Ballerini said. "I think having these kind of collaborations, people that have that stigma in their head of, like, 'Oh, it's all about the truck,' you know, they're like, 'Oh, wait, I like this song. That's a country singer? Wait, let me check out more.' And it kind of opens the doors more, which is kinda sick."
• Drew Taggart first wrote this song just after a bout of depression at the height of The Chainsmokers' fame. He explained in an Instagram post:
  
  "You'd think that an artist getting their first massive break and seeing success in a career they love would have no problems, but that's the funny thing about depression. It doesn't matter what you've accomplished, because it attacks how you feel about it."
  
  Taggart began using songwriting as his therapy and initially channeled his feelings into dark introspective material such as "Sick Boy" and "Everybody Hates Me." "This Feeling' was the first song Taggart wrote when he came out of my depressed state. He explained that it's "a song about following your heart even when people don't believe in you."
• The song's lyrical content fitted perfectly with Ballerini's Unapologetically album and she included it as a bonus track on the deluxe edition. "I love the song," she told ABC Radio. "'This Feeling' is all about following your heart, which is the whole album that I made, that's what it's about, so it really made sense."
• The video, shot at Milestone MX motocross track in Riverside, California and directed by Similar But Different, portrays The Chainsmokers duo and Ballerini as three riders each struggling to think with their heads instead of their hearts. Alex Pall is an over confident showpony who hides his feelings, Drew Taggart an underdog and Kelsea Ballerini the female in the male dominated sport. It all culminates in a pulse-pounding nighttime race around the dirt track as fans cheer them on. Pall said:
  
  "I think we can all relate to the idea of wanting to be with someone and the people around you, your friends or whatever, not really wanting you to be with that person and just ignoring them and following your heart and deciding to be with that person anyways."