Kelsea Ballerini's 'Love Me Like You Mean It' Breaks Record

Kelsea Ballerini has set a new record with her debut single, "Love Me Like You Mean It."

The song has reached No. 1 on the Mediabase country radio singles chart, the first debut single from a solo female artist to do so since Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take the Wheel" landed at No. 1 in 2006.

"What made me love the single and what made me want to lead with "Love Me Like You Mean It" was the confident-girl stance on it," Ballerini tells The Boot. "And so, my whole album, I really wanted to have that theme of confidence in a girl, and being okay with who you are, and talking about heartbreak, and talking about all those things but trying to make it positive, and so with that mindset, it helped me narrow down songs for the album.”

"Love Me Like You Mean It" has also become the first debut single from a solo artist, male or female, to reach No. 1 since Sam Hunt's "Leave the Night On." Maddie & Tae's "Girl in a Country Song" was the most recent No. 1 from a debuting female act.

“I think the reason that there’s girls that are working right now — like Maddie & Tae and RaeLynn, I’ve gotten to do a lot of stuff with them — is because they’re very strong in what they do and who they are,” Ballerini explains. “The cool thing about the group of girls that’s launching right now is that we’re all super-different. Our musical styles are all really different, and I think that it’s almost undeniable for whoever thinks that there’s no girls in country. It’s like, ‘Here we are, we’re coming!’"

"Love Me Like You Mean It" is from Ballerini's debut album, The First Time, which was released last month on Black River Entertainment. The single is also Black River's first No. 1.

Kelsea Ballerini’s ‘Love Me Like You Mean It’ Hits No. 1, Breaks Record