Soon to be 21 year old New Jersey native, Halsey debuts at number two on the new Billboards 200 chart. Her website bio simply states, “I am Halsey. I will never be anything but honest. I write songs about sex and being sad,” which is nothing short of the truth.
Like many modern day artists, Halsey started out on YouTube posting covers as well original content. She released her debut EP Room 93 in October 2014. Room 93 included tracks “Ghost” and “Hurricane,” which can be found on the deluxe version of “Badlands.”
When you search Halsey on YouTube you will find yourself on the HalseyVevo channel that contains live performances, music videos and behind the scene clips and has more than 26.3 million views. The music video for “Ghost” has more than more than 5.1 million plays itself.
“Badlands“, her debut full length studio album released on Aug. 28, 2015, has been creating buzz all across the Internet. Halsey put on a record release show in Los Angeles where she invited fans to join her for an intimate night of music and emotions.
Her single of this album, “New Americana,” has been getting a lot of radio play since it was released this last summer. In this song, she has the lyrics, “raised on Biggie and Nirvana” which she explained in an interview with MTV.
“It’s because I come from a mixed race family — my dad’s black and my mom’s white — so growing up my dad was listening to a ton of old school rap and my mom was listening to a ton of ‘90s grunge. So I was fortunate that my parents were rocking MTV when I was an infant.”
Many young adults feel like they can relate to Halsey’s album because of her lyrics. She has songs about relationships, parties and becoming your own person while growing up. There’s a lyric in her song “Colors” that listeners are frequently using as their Instagram captions. “You were red and you liked me ’cause I was blue. You touched me and suddenly I was a lilac sky. And you decided purple just wasn’t for you.”
This winter she’s joining The Weeknd on “The Madness” tour for a handful of dates, including Los Angeles on Dec. 8. Not before she embarks on her fall headlining “Badlands” Tour which has already sold out its California dates.
If Halsey continues to put so much passion in her lyrics and performing she could find herself on the Billboard charts for many albums to come.
Halsey is definitely not an artist that you want to miss seeing climb to the top.