The title track of Ballerini's second album, she calls "Unapologetically" her first "proper love song." She wrote it three weeks after meeting fellow country singer Morgan Evans; the couple were engaged by the time the album was released.

When she started working on the album, Ballerini tried to retrace the steps she took when recording her debut, The First Time, but she realized she was in a very different place as a person and an artist. A breakthrough came when she decided to just be herself - unapologetically. When she came up with the song, she knew she had the title of the album as well. "When I wrote this song, I feel like that's what this is, it's every corner of who I am - happy, sad, good, bad," she told Nash Country Daily. "That's why I picked it as the album title."

Ballerini wrote this song with Hillary Lindsey and Forest Glen Whitehead. Lindsey has written with heavyweights Lady Gaga ("Million Reasons") and Carrie Underwood ("Last Name"). Forest Glen Whitehead is a Louisiana native who co-produced Ballerini's first album and earned writing credits on the tracks "Love Me Like You Mean It," "Peter Pan," and four other tracks from the set.

This track marks one of the first times that Ballerini has willingly penned a love song, as she's clearly not a fan of the genre.

"I had the word 'Unapologetically' in my phone, and I thought it was going to be a big girl sassy anthem," Ballerini revealed, during an interview with Andi Summers from 92.5 XTU in Philadelphia "but that just wasn't where I was at in my life, and we made it a love song. It's one of the first ever proper love songs I've ever written."

Ballerini debuted the song live with a colorful balloon-filled performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on September 27, 2017.

The Unapologetically album tells the chronological story of the two years since Ballerini's debut album, The First Time, as the singer gets over a heartbreaking breakup and gets engaged to Morgan Evans. Asked by Pop Crush how she decided on the album's concept, Ballerini replied:

"I wanted people to listen to the whole thing. It's such a single-driven industry now. The only way you really get to know an artist is by listening to the whole record. I knew I wanted to do something. Then, when I was listening to the songs I wanted to put on it, I was like, 'Oh, I've written about my life, why not put it in order and let it be a chronological story?'"