• 3 days ago
"Halsey is the best version of myself. Tall and confident, coordinated, sexy, brave. And that's exactly why I invented her."

She's channeled her struggles with bipolar disorder into a chart-topping music career.

This is the life of Halsey.
Transcript
00:00But before I get to be Halsey, and before I get to be the best version of myself,
00:04I have to be the absolute worst version of myself.
00:10And that version of myself is a 24-year-old girl from New Jersey named Ashley Frangipane.
00:30I bet everybody watching back home right now is on the couch like,
00:38Ashley's on the TV! You remember Ashley, the singer?
00:42Nice girl! Not for my son, but good for her.
00:45I started writing music when I was 15 years old,
00:59and part of that reason is because of my amazing mother.
01:03I begged her and begged her and begged her to buy me a violin,
01:07because I promised I was going to play, and my dad was like,
01:10she's not going to play. She's going to pick it up for like five minutes,
01:15and then it's going to be over. We really can't afford it, because we were super poor.
01:20And my mom championed for me, and she got me that violin.
01:25And I got that violin, and then I learned viola, and then I learned cello,
01:28and then I learned piano, and then I learned guitar.
01:40Words come from her mind, to her hands, to the paper,
01:55and she reads them back to herself, and she goes,
01:58God, is that really what I think of me?
02:11As Halsey, I've accepted a fair amount of awards,
02:16and when I do, I get to come up to the podium and be exactly what Halsey is,
02:28the best version of myself, tall and confident, coordinated, sexy, brave,
02:35and that's exactly why I invented her.
02:40♪
03:08My whole life, my mother had always told me,
03:10women in our family just have really bad periods.
03:13It was just something she thought she was kind of cursed to deal with,
03:16and that I was cursed to deal with, and that was just a part of my life.
03:20♪
03:32Brutally honest, outspoken, and fearless.
03:36Goes with their gut, never favors appearance,
03:40because who has time for vanity with opponents to extinguish?
03:44And don't you think that hint of silver hairline is distinguished?
03:49In men, all these qualities, they make you a genius,
03:52but if you're a woman, you're an inconvenience.
03:55You were not put on this earth to make everybody else's life easier,
03:58so please, be inconvenient.
04:01♪
04:22I've been a part of fandoms, and I have seen people,
04:26I have seen them be motivated and passionate and determined about something
04:31in a time where it is so necessary to have feeling and to have empathy.
04:36♪
04:49He's got a case of matchbox cars,
04:51and he says that he'll teach me to play the guitar if I just keep quiet.
04:56And the stairwell beside apartment 1245 will haunt me in my sleep
05:00for as long as I am alive,
05:02and I'm too young to know why it aches in my thighs,
05:05but I must lie, I must lie.
05:08♪
05:12I even went on stage that night in Chicago when I was having a miscarriage.
05:17I mean, I pied the piper, I put on a diaper,
05:20and sang out my spleen to a room full of teens,
05:22what do you mean this happened to me?
05:25♪
05:49♪
06:18♪
06:21The Halsey that I get to be on paper and in songs and on the radio,
06:24she's cool, I like her.
06:26But underneath all that is still just me,
06:29self-critical and vulnerable and terrified
06:33and so, so, so overwhelmingly thankful for this.