Edison, NJ · pop · alt-pop

Halsey

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Alt-pop that keeps rebuilding its own frame, from synth confessionals to a rock turn produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Halsey is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, born September 29, 1994, and raised in Edison, New Jersey. She took her stage name from an anagram of her first name. After gaining attention posting music on social media, she signed to Astralwerks in 2014 and released her debut EP, Room 93, that October.

Her debut album, Badlands, arrived in 2015 as a synth-heavy record with a loose narrative running through it. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum, along with its singles Colors, Gasoline and New Americana, the last of which gave her a first entry on the Hot 100.

In 2016 she featured on the Chainsmokers' Closer, a number-one hit that went eighteen-times platinum and put her voice on pop radio for long stretches. Her second album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, followed in 2017 with a more radio-friendly sound and debuted atop the Billboard 200, spinning off the singles Now or Never and Bad at Love.

Manic, released in 2020, became her best-selling album worldwide, led by Without Me, which topped the Hot 100 and was certified diamond. The 2021 album If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power was written during pregnancy, paired with a film shot to accompany it, and traded pop hooks for a darker, industrial sound.

Halsey left Capitol Records in 2023 following a dispute over the release of a non-album single, and signed with Columbia. The Great Impersonator followed in 2024, moving through pastiches of specific artists and eras, with each song built around a different reference point.

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