Pop star Fletcher and pop-country singer Kelsea Ballerini deal with collective heartache in their recent collaboration, a cinematic music video to their gut-wrenching duet, “Better Version.”
Videos by American Songwriter
A single from Fletcher’s 2022 album, Girl of My Dreams, the song follows the life of a romantic relationship and the eventual end of love. Ballerini lends her country-fried stylings to the stripped-back pop ballad.
I was kind, I was warm, I was patient / All the nights that you cried when you’re wasted / Hold your hand, rub your chest when you’re anxious / Helped you with the career you were making / Look at you, you’re a star, I’m the reason / That you’re more confident, motivated, the song opens with biting words, chronicling a relationship’s rise and fall and what happens after the other person has moved on.
The chorus plays, It’s always the next person / That gets the better version / ‘Cause baby, I loved you at your worst / And I fixed your heart, but mine still hurts / And now some other person / Is gonna get the better version of you.
Their recently released video shows the two singers in two separate relationships that meet the same fate. The video opens with Fletcher and her partner, played by actress Ava Capri, having an intimate conversation, then depicts Ballerini and her significant other, portrayed by Gavin Leatherwood, starting their life together. As the footage plays, passionate scenes and sweet moments fade into looks of disappointment and shared resentment.
“It takes you on the parallel journey of two love stories…from the passion and happy beginnings to the unraveling, to ultimately the betterment of yourself with the humans that meet you there,” Ballerini shared in a post on Instagram with Fletcher echoing, “It’s a story of the highs and lows of a relationship and ultimately it’s dissolution. Maybe my favorite video I’ve done yet.”
Watch the two handle heartbreak in the music video for “Better Version” below.
Photo Courtesy Capitol Records
