Halsey has granted an interview with Zane Lowe in Apple Music who is going around the world for the images in which she charges against her seal. He says they don’t let him get more records after the failure of ‘The Great Impersonator’. An album that came out less than a year ago, for more than 66 minutes and was promoted with a strange order of singles, first revealing the disease he had suffered, and then moving to different styles and genres.
Halsey complains: «I can’t make an album right now. They don’t leave me. Can’t. It is reality. Because ‘The Great Impersonator’ did not work as expected. And being honest, the album sold 100,000 copies the first week. It is a good figure, especially for someone who has not had a hit in a long time. The tour was the most successful of my entire career. (…) They want ‘manic’ numbers. Everyone wants those numbers. And I can’t always get them. It should be enough to do it from time to time. But it is not so. And what would be successful for many artists, a success story, 100,000 copies the first week in a time without physical sales, without a radio hit, is a failure compared to what I achieved before. And that is the most difficult to have been a pop star before, because I am no longer, but they compare me with numbers and people who do not consider comparable.
Remember specifically: “A couple of years ago, yes, it was me and Ariana” fighting for number 1 in Billboard. ” We didn’t fight, we sent each other messages. We loved him. It was the best, that was: “Without Me”, “Thank U, Next”, “7 rings” was incredible. But if I get an album and sell 100,000 copies without radio or anything, the comparison is: “Why don’t you make Taylor Swift numbers?” Are you joking? I made an experimental conceptual album on how I almost died. I’m not going to make those numbers. But it is doing pretty good. They are strong numbers. I continue among the first ten female artists in sales. But it is not enough because I am not the pop star I went, although I decided not to be.
The singer also remembers her ‘Badlands’ debut, which turns 10 and will celebrate with a tour: «I think I could not make this album again. I could not repeat it. And people ask. They tell me: “We want another album like Badlands. Make another album like Badlands.” I think what they want from me is something that is already impossible to achieve at this point. And it’s like … it is more energetic, more abstract, and has that kind of naive courage from someone who has not yet failed, but has not won either. You are existing in that intermediate space. And I think I made many decisions naturally and instinctively. Also, as the album shows, I was not ashamed of my ideas. And I think that is something that begins to happen to you as an artist: you start worrying about how your ideas will be received, or you tell yourself: “I can’t say this”, or “I can’t do that.”
In fact, he explains that before taking out ‘Badlands’ it was a kind of nomad: «Before ‘Badlands’, my life was a disaster. It wasn’t right. I didn’t have a place to live for a long time. I didn’t talk to my parents, and at best, I went on a couch on a sofa or involved me with boys who didn’t really like them just to stay at home. And in the worst case, I slept in the street (…) but I channeled all that in ‘Badlands’. Many of the songs of the album are a direct response to that violence, or despite that violence, whether physical or symbolic. The album is hypersexual in a way that I believed normal at age 18, and now I see it and think: “My God, where is your mother?!”. I felt completely as an adult.
The singer reflects on why she has lost popularity at this time: “” Love and power “came out just after ‘manic’, and what happened after ‘manic’ and at the end of that cycle was Covid, Tiktok becoming the main vehicle of marketing and musical discovery. And I got pregnant, I had a baby, and I said to myself: “I’m going to take these two years to make an experimental album that feels proud.” It is still my favorite album that I have done ».
Indeed, “Love and Power” his masterpiece: “Many people consider ‘if i Can’s Have Love, I Want Power’ the best album in my career. Like my masterpiece. My most true form. I worked with some of the most prolific and acclaimed musicians. They brought the best out of me. I arrived with my best material before they even played the songs. It was my most successful attempt to make a conceptual album as an artist, because I have been trying to make conceptual records all my career. People take it to understand it. Every year more people understand it and more people want it. I think people will consider it a timeless album, and that means success. I don’t know if I care about the numerical reception, but this is what I ask you: the consequences of doing that was that they fired me from my stamp ».
He continues: «They fired me. And I had to sign with another seal. I had to sign with another seal at 10 years of career, with multiple hits number one, mass albums, triple platinum albums, four times platinum. I made that album, and I could not get the tools or resources to do another equal. And especially not to make another at the level that was expected of me. So if I fail again and I have to make another album with even less faith and resources, then I am trapped. What will happen is that 5 years later, when people decide that Love and Power is timeless and one of the best albums of the fucking decade, or whatever, it will be great, and I will love to read those articles, but none of that will help me make more music ».
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMDACG6R4-M
