Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, known professionally as Halsey, is an American singer. Gaining attention from self-released music on social media platforms, she[a] was signed by Astralwerks in 2014 and released her debut EP, Room 93, later that year.
Halsey has amassed more than 31 billion combined global streams to date, including more than 12.5 billion U.S. streams, and sold nearly 17 million adjusted album units worldwide. Her latest album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, was released in August of 2021, was produced by Trent Reznor, and was nominated for a Grammy. It followed the release of Manic, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Current Albums chart. It was the first album of 2020 to be certified Platinum in the U.S. and attained Platinum certification in numerous other countries.
Halsey also just kicked off their Love and Power Tour on May 17 starting in West Palm Beach, FL and will continue until September 22, ending in Dover, Delaware. During this tour, they are also headlining a variety of festivals, including Hangout Music Festival, Governors Ball, Summerfest, Festival d’été de Québec, Fuji Rock Festival, Kraków Live Festival and Firefly Music Festival.
Halsey continues to push creative boundaries, exerting an influence and impact beyond music. Her first book, I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry, debuted on The New York Times Best Sellers list in November 2020. Named as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, they have won over 20 awards, including an AMA, MTV VMA, GLAAD Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Hal David Starlight Award and a CMT Music Award. In January 2021, Halsey introduced about-face, an award-winning, multi-dimensional makeup line made for everyone. Halsey continues to speak up for important causes such as disenfranchised youth, women’s rights, mental health, and the LGBTQ community.
In January 2022, Halsey wrote and produced a song, titled “So Good”. When the song’s release was withheld from release due to Capitol needing to test the song’s “virality”, Halsey posted a TikTok video criticizing Capitol Records on May 22, 2022 for not being allowed to release “So Good” without an “accompanying campaign or TikTok video to make it go viral.” Five days prior, without the approval of Capitol, Halsey played a snippet of her song in a TikTok video. In the days following her post, questions arose regarding whether or not Capitol was going to take legal action against her. Music industry attorney Erin M. Jacobson mentioned in an article by TIME that “it is rare that a label would sue one of its own artists, especially when the label plans to continue working with that artist. Further, using such a short piece of the record could also be seen as a promotional use.” Capitol Records eventually conceded on May 31, 2022, amid criticism and scrutiny from a variety of music artists, and set a release date for the song of June 9, 2022. There have been questions about whether the release controversy was a marketing stunt from observers, though Halsey maintained throughout the controversy that it was not fake. Many news outlets commented on the increasing nature, and problem, of pressures for TikTok virality on musicians by record labels.
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