Melissa Kacar

If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is a largely dark and brooding exploration of femininity, identity, body autonomy, and gender exploration beyond the framework of traditional stereotypes and conventions. There are many aspects of Halsey 's life that informed this conceptual project, but perhaps the most pertinent influence is their own path to motherhood. She has been very open about her health and fertility journey throughout her career, especially in bringing awareness to her endometriosis diagnosis and the miscarriages she has experienced. This album became a bold and honest confrontation of all that society and the world at large place on women, as well as the limitations of her own body as someone living with chronic illness. In January 2021, Halsey announced she was pregnant with her first child, and she gave birth just a month before the album was released. So much of this album is rooted in reclaiming autonomy over her body in the wake of illness, pregnancy, and the ...

Room 93 is the 2014 debut EP by Halsey , a collection of five songs written through the lens of a young woman who left it all behind to chase a dream far bigger than herself, all while trying to make sense of the world around her.  In an interview with  All Things Go Music  in 2014, Halsey described the concept of  Room 93  being inspired by her time living in a hotel room for the year spent making the EP. "I've formed romantic relationships and business relationships and friendships out of hotel rooms. What's weird about them is it’s like a stage setting, a fake place. It’s not a real environment," she said. "The EP is a narrative about how in a hotel room, because of the forced intimacy, you can either really be yourself for a bit or you can really be someone you're not. So it's about human relationships under the scope of that lab rat mentality, or security cam mentality." Certain visual themes shine through in this music; it's almost as if yo...

BADLANDS was born out of necessity and a means of escape for Ashley Frangipane, along with the creation of Halsey as a persona she could disappear into. It wasn't just a world she built for herself, but one that allowed those who saw a piece of themselves within the music to escape into as well. That blurred line between who they are and who they perform as has always been central to Halsey's artistry. The dismantling of the divide between the two sides of herself is something she's explored time and time again, especially on albums like  Manic and The Great Impersonator , but it all traces back to BADLANDS, their 2015 debut album. This music allowed Halsey to create a life devoid of expectation, control, and the limitations of reality. It was a place where she was able to reclaim her agency, and the chaos of her inner world would finally be seen, heard and understood.  To have that kind of confidence and clarity of identity at just nineteen years old was rare. Expressi...