With her blue wigs, androgynous style, tri-bi identity (biracial, bisexual, bipolar) and self-made internet fame, the extramusical aspects of alt-pop sensation Halsey's (New Jersey singer-songwriter Ashley Nicolette Frangipane) stage identity has always threatend to overshadow her music. Mainstream music listeners mostly associate her with the generic backing vocals she provided for the ubiquitous The Chainsmokers hit "Closer"; her lack of a distinctive vocal style and her tendency to lean heavily on the musical stylings of her peers have failed to set herself apart from the pack of female alt-pop rebels that aim to emulate Lorde's rise to mainstream success.
Her recent sophomore album hopeless fountain kingdom (2017) unfortunately falls short in living up to the uniqueness of Halsey's identity and the hype she's earned within the Tumblr set - the lead single, "Now or Never" (her first top 40 single as a lead artist) is too sonically reminiscent of Rihanna's "Needed Me", with a music video that is too derivative of Baz Luhrmann's 1996 cinematic reimagination of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. "Eyes Closed", the album's second single, is more compelling, but also not particularly noteworthy.
“Strangers,” the album's second promotional single, is Halsey's best attempt at distinction. A duet with Lauren Jauregui of Fifth Harmony, the track is a radio-friendly '80s inspired synthpop cut which should help calm (very valid) anxieties of Halsey capitulating to pressures to 'straighten' her image as she aims for mainstream success. The opening verses ('She doesn't kiss me on the mouth anymore/ 'Cause it's more intimate, than she thinks we should get') wastes no time in signalling to the listener that this is a song that is openly and unapologetically about the romantic and sexual entanglement between two women. The pronoun 'she' is used eight times in the song's verses, making it difficult for even a casual listener to miss the point. Halsey has noted that this is her first song to explicitly feature female pronouns - a clear departure from her reliance on gender neutral pronouns. In doing so, she joins the rank of the small number of openly queer musicians who are also explicitly queer in their music (e.g. Frank Ocean and Years and Years' Olly Alexander). The chorus ('Said that we're not lovers, we're just strangers/ With the same damn hunger/ To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all') may not be particularly memorable, but it nevertheless makes for a bite-size and relatable appeal for LGBT equality and acceptance.
Her decision to feature another openly bisexual artist on the track - and to perform the song live with her on the Today show - was arguably more countercultural than "New Americana" ever was: "I was thinking to myself, if I want this song to be believable, it needs to be real. So I’m not going to put a girl on the song to sing who’s straight. I’m just not going to do it" (Idolator). As Spin's Anna Gaca noted, the proliferation of indie artists who explore the queer experience in their work (Tegan and Sara, Torres, Hayley Kiyoko, etc.) has not eclipsed the cultural presence of faux-lesbian narratives in pop culture. There's t.A.T.u.'s "All the Things She Said" (2000), Britney Spears and Madonna's infamous MTV kiss, Katy Perry's breakout hit and, most recently, Demi Lovato's coy and non-committal "Cool for the Summer".
Halsey has the distinction of being the first female solo artist with a No. 1 album this year. "Strangers" could be the first 'authentic' lesbian song to climb up the Billboard charts (it peaked at no. 100). The ideal next step would be to release a music video that represents the song's narrative in an original and distinctive way, without pandering to the male gaze.
