Songfacts®:

• Here, Reba McEntire imagines how she would spend "seven minutes in heaven." Her fantasy doesn't involve asking Johnny Cash why he wore all-black, having Elvis sing her a song, or even making small talk with Saint Peter. Nope, if she could make a quick trip to the afterlife, Reba would choose to spend every precious second with a loved one.
• Reba McEntire's beloved mom, Jacqueline McEntire, died in March 2020, aged 93, after a battle with cancer. Mother and daughter shared a close bond throughout the years.
  
  When songwriters Olivia Rudeen and Matt Wynn pitched "Seven Minutes" to McEntire, it triggered an intense surge of emotion in her. "When you find a song that really touches your heart and chokes you up, I've gotta sing it, I've gotta record it," she remarked during an interview for Today With Hoda & Jenna.
• In the music video, McEntire becomes the storyteller as she croons. She settles into a "quiet corner booth" and keeps a keen eye out for that one special person she's been longing to reunite with.
  
  Then the moment arrives. A shadowy figure takes a seat across from Reba, their face veiled in mystery. But there's no doubt in your mind – the silhouette, the hair, it's unmistakably her mother, Jacqueline, the one who's been on her mind throughout the heartfelt performance.
  
  "That is exactly what I thought it would look like if I went to heaven and it was, you know, with the smoke coming in and out, made it look really heavenly," said McEntire. "And I thought it would be something familiar, something that you'd feel comfortable with. God thinks of everything. And so, to walk up to the booth, and the next time I walk up and mama's there and I put my arms on her shoulders."
• McEntire paid tribute to her mom on "You Never Gave Up on Me" months before her passing. "You Never Gave Up on Me" is the closing track of her 2019 album Stronger Than The Truth. At the end she thanks her mother. When the redheaded country star's mom heard it, her reaction was one you would anticipate. "Oh she cried," Reba recalled, "she loved it."
• "Seven Minutes In Heaven" is the only brand-new song included in the track list of Not That Fancy. The album serves as a companion project to McEntire's lifestyle book Not that Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating and Dusting Off Your Boots.