Biography

Ashley Nicolette Frangipane (born September 29, 1994), known professionally as Halsey (/ˈhɔːl.zi/), is an American singer and songwriter. Her stage name is a reference to the Halsey Street station of the New York City Subway in Brooklyn, and an anagram of her first name.

Frangipane signed her first recording contract with Astralwerks, and released her debut extended play (EP) Room 93 in 2014. Her debut studio album Badlands (2015) debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She appeared as the featured artist on The Chainsmokers' 2016 single "Closer", which reached number one on several national charts, including in the United States and the United Kingdom. Her second studio album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (2017) was preceded by the single "Now or Never", which became her first top 40 entry as a lead artist.

Early life

Ashley Frangipane was born and raised in in Clark, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Nicole Frangipane, who works for security in a hospital, and Chris Frangipane, who manages a car dealership. She is of Italian and Hungarian descent on her mother's side and African-American and some Irish on her father's side. Halsey has two younger brothers, Sevian and Dante.

Growing up, Halsey played the violin, viola, and cello until moving onto the acoustic guitar when she was 14. In one of her first interviews, Halsey said she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around the age of 16 or 17. She identified herself in 2015 as "tri-bi": biracial, bisexual, and bipolar but has since distanced herself from the claim, saying she dislikes the term.

When she was 18, Halsey encountered financial trouble and music became a way to pay her rent. She played numerous acoustic shows in different cities under various stage names. She chose "Halsey" as her moniker because it is an anagram of her real name as well as a street in Brooklyn where she spent a lot of time as a teenager. Halsey originally planned on going to college to major in fine arts, but after realizing she could not afford it, she instead enrolled in a community college as a creative writing major.

Career

2012–2016: Early career and Badlands

Halsey began her career by posting cover songs on YouTube under her real name. In 2012, she recorded a parody of Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" called "The Haylor Song" about Swift's relationship with One Direction member Harry Styles, and posted it on her Tumblr account. In 2014, Halsey recorded a song called "Ghost" and posted it on SoundCloud. The song gained Halsey attention and she signed with the Astralwerks record label. She subsequently released her debut EP titled Room 93 on October 27, 2014. Four of the five songs on the extended play contained an accompanying video.

Halsey toured with The Kooks in 2014 as the opening act. At South by Southwest in 2015, Halsey was the most talked about performer of the festival on Twitter. Through March and April 2015, Halsey led a co-headlining tour with Young Rising Sons. She also supported Imagine Dragons on the Smoke + Mirrors Tour during the North American leg between June and August 2015.

Her debut album, Badlands, was released on August 28, 2015. In an interview, Halsey described Badlands as an "angry feminist record," but later commented she had been misquoted and actually meant to refer to it as an "angry female record," though she does identify with the feminist movement. In an interview with Billboard in June 2015, Halsey announced that she had already begun writing material for her second studio album. To promote her music, Halsey has been featured in a few interviews and performances, including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Last Call with Carson Daly. The album included three singles, with the third "Colors" released on 7" and as a five track remix EP "Complementary Colors".

In May 2016 she released the song "Tokyo Narita (Freestyle)" produced by Lido. Halsey provided guest vocals to The Chainsmokers' single "Closer", which reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Halsey also made an appearance in episode 7 of the Showtime series Roadies.

2017: Hopeless Fountain Kingdom

In January 2017, the song "Not Afraid Anymore" was released. It appears on the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Darker.

In March 2017, Halsey announced via Twitter that her second studio album would be titled Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, released on June 2. The lead single from the album, "Now or Never", was released on April 4, 2017.

On May 4, 2017, Halsey released "Eyes Closed" as the second single from the album.

Artistry

Halsey is an electropop and synth-pop artist. Growing up, Halsey's father listened to The Notorious B.I.G., Slick Rick, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and 2Pac while her mother listened to The Cure, Alanis Morissette, and Nirvana. She says this has influenced her. Halsey called Panic! at the Disco the "band that changed fucking life” and credits Lady Gaga for giving her the strength to be herself. Halsey has mentioned Long Island rock band Brand New as both an influence and a favorite of hers, once changing her biography on Instagram to "the devil and God are raging inside me", a reference to their third album of the same name. The biggest influence on her live performances is Adam Lazzara, the frontman of Taking Back Sunday, as she said, "One of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen is watching live and watching Adam use that microphone as a prop and I thought yep, I’m gonna do that." Her other influences include Kanye West, The Weeknd, Amy Winehouse, and Bright Eyes, as well as the film directors Quentin Tarantino, Harmony Korine, and Larry Clark. She has said, "there's plenty of musicians that I love and respect, but I think that I'm the most inspired by cinema."

The New York Times' Jon Caramanica noted "Halsey arrived as part of a slew of female pop rebels who emerged in the wake of Lorde's early-2010s recalibration of the genre’s operating hierarchies."

Discography

Main article: Halsey discography

• Badlands (2015)
• Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (2017)

Tours

Headlining

• Badlands Tour (2015–2016)
• Hopeless Fountain Kingdom World Tour (2017)

Co-headlining

• The American Youth Tour (2015) (with Young Rising Sons)

Opening act

• Imagine Dragons – Smoke + Mirrors Tour (2015)
• The Weeknd – The Madness Fall Tour (2015)

Awards and nominations

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