Rebel Heart

SHE’S ONE OF THE BIGGEST MUSICIANS ON THE PLANET RIGHT NOW, WITH TWO GRAMMY NOMINATIONS, 10 MULTI-PLATINUM SINGLES AND 17 MILLION INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS AND COUNTING. BUT BEHIND HALSEY’S HUGE SUCCESS, THERE’S A HELL OF A LOT OF HUMAN

- Elle Mclure

FOR SOMEONE WHOSE SONGS have been streamed more than 23 billion times globally, who has two platinum albums to her name (her debut Badlands and follow-up Hopeless Fountain Kingdom) and the achievement of having the longestrunning Billboard top 10 hit by a female artist this century, you could forgive Halsey for being smug about her success. But talking about her local fan base, she says self-deprecatingly, “I think it’s because you guys love Pink so much. You’re like, ‘Well, we love Pink, so we have to like Halsey because they’re the same.’” Sure, she’s deflecting, but she’s also humble as hell. “I don’t know what to make of everything, because I’m really, really, really far past the point I ever thought I was going to get to as a musician. I wrote out my plan for the first year, and then everything else went very differently. I’m still playing catch-up.”

Admittedly, a lot has happened for Halsey in her 25 years. Born Ashley Frangipane in New Jersey to parents who were still college students, she got her first tattoo at 15 – her mum, who accompanied her, forced her to get it on her foot, hoping the sensitive spot would deter her from getting any more. At 17, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after a suicide attempt – something she’s been unreserved in acknowledging publicly. Around the same time, she started writing songs and became big on Tumblr – in the way she’d probably be on Instagram or TikTok if it were 2019 and not the early 2010s – sharing poetry and other vulnerable musings, all the while fastidiously curating an online persona from her bedroom.