Love and respect

n one of her first interviews, Halsey stated she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around the age of 16 or 17.[6] 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.[5] 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 instead enrolled in a community college as a creative writing major.[8]

In an interview, Halsey allegedly used the term "tri-bi" (biracial, bisexual and bipolar) to identify herself,[9] although she has since distanced herself from it, claiming she was misquoted.[10]

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.[11] In 2014, Halsey recorded a song called "Ghost" and posted it on SoundCloud.[12] 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.[13] Four of the five songs on the extended play contained an accompanying video.[5]

Halsey toured with The Kooks in 2014 as the opening act.[14] At South by Southwest in 2015, Halsey was the most talked about performer of the festival on Twitter.[15] Through March and April 2015, Halsey led a co-headlining tour with Young Rising Sons.[16] 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.[17] In an interview, Halsey described Badlands as an "angry feminist record,"[18] but later commented she had been misquoted and actually meant to refer to it as an "angry female record".[19] In an interview with Billboard in June 2015, Halsey announced that she had already begun writing material for her second studio album.[20] 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.[21][22]

Halsey is an electropop artist.[23][24][25] 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 as a musician and her style.[7] She has called Panic! at the Disco the "band that changed [her] fucking life.”[26] The biggest influence on her live performances is Adam Lazzara, the frontman of Taking Back Sunday;[27] Halsey has said "One of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen is watching [Taking Back Sunday] live and watching Adam use that microphone as a prop and I thought yep, I’m gonna do that."[28] Halsey's other influences include Kanye West,[29] The Weeknd,[30] Brand New, and Bright Eyes,[28] as well as the film directors Quentin Tarantino, Harmony Korine, and Larry Clark.[31] She has said "Being a musician people ask you a lot about what musicians inspire you, and there's plenty of musicians that I love and respect, but I think that I'm the most inspired by cinema."