The song was written by Brown with Matt McGinn and Jordan Schmidt. The song is about a couple where the question "what if" is asked repeatedly about what would happen in their relationship. It features a duet with Lauren Alaina, a school friend from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School when he was living in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. According to Brown, the song was initially not intended to be a duet, he said: "Once we decided on adding a woman to "What Ifs," I knew that I wanted Lauren to sing it, and, of course, she killed it." According to Brown, another song was going to be used in the album, however, he was asked so much about "What Ifs" on social media that it was then decided that the song should be included in the album.
Composition
The song is in the key of G minor with a moderately fast tempo of approximately 126 beats per minute. It follows the chord progression Gm-B-F. Brown's vocals range from F-B.
Commercial performance
The song sold 6,000 downloads in the US the week the album was released on December 2, 2016, allowing it to chart at number 37 on the US BillboardHot Country Songs chart. The song first entered the US BillboardCountry Airplay chart for the week of March 4, 2017 at number 60. It reached No. 1 on Hot Country Songs in October 2017, ending the record breaking 34-week reign of Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road". The song is the first No. 1 on the chart for both Brown and Alaina. The following week, for charts dated October 28, 2017, "What Ifs" stayed at number one, as well as topping the Country Airplay and Country Streaming Songs charts. Together with the release of the deluxe edition of the album which also reached number on Top Country Albums, and another number one for a new track "Heaven" on digital sales, Brown became the first artist to have simultaneous number ones on all five main country charts. The song was certified Platinum by the RIAA on October 2, 2017, and 5× Platinum on January 27, 2020 for 5 million units in sales and streams in the United States. It was the third most-consumed country song of 2017, with 1,551,000 units including streams sold in the year. It has sold 889,000 copies in the US as of January 2019.
Music video
The official music video for the song was directed by P.R. Brown and produced by Steve Lamar. The video was filmed along the Californian coast at The Inn at Newport Ranch, a resort and cattle ranch to the north of San Francisco. It features Brown and his duet partner Lauren Alaina singing along the coast. It was released on May 14, 2017. An earlier lyric video was first released on May 4, 2017, and shows Brown and Alaina cruising down a road.
