Halsey

Artists Facts

Active: 2014-present
Name: Halsey, (born Ashley Nicolette Franipane) named for Halsey Street station of Brooklyn, NY subway stop
Genre: Electrop, Synthpop
Birth Date: September 29, 1994
Place of Birth: Edison, New Jersey

Artist Background

New Jersey native Halsey’s music is a therapeutic outlet for responding to her storied life. Four years after debuting on the electrop scene, she has a top five hit to her name with “Bad at Love” and several accolades for both her individual and collaborative projects.

Frangipane, aka Halsey, is the daughter of a hospital security guard and car dealer and the sister of two brothers, Dante and Sevian. Halsey started in classical music by playing the viola, cello and violin before picking up the acoustic guitar and age 14.

The 2012 graduate of Warren Hills Regional High School briefly studied at Rhode Island School of Design before transferring to community college and subsequently dropping out.

Artist Music Career

After a storied youth, Halsey used music as a therapeutic outlet. While performing acoustic sets, she assumed numerous stage names before settling on Halsey as a nod to her birth name and place.

After years of writing poetry, a chance meeting with a producer set her on track for a collaboration of “Ghost.” This nod to a former boyfriend earned her immediate online popularity and record label bids. With the offer of creative freedom, she settled with Astralwerks.

Halsey toured with the Koots in 2014 while creating her debut studio album and dating Norwegian producer Lido. That October, her ep “Room 93” dropped and charted in the Billboard Top 200. After taking the songs to South by Southwest in 2015, Halsey a co-headlined a tour with Young Rising Songs in March 2015. That June she opened for Imagine Dragons on their Smoke + Mirrors Tour in North America.

Halsey co-wrote every song on “Badlands,” her debut studio album, which dropped August 28, 2015, which was a dystopian concept project. It opened at number two on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 chart and sold 97,000 copies within its first week. The project went on to be certified platinum. The project also debuted at number nine in the UK and generated four commercial singles that went on to be certified gold.

Also in 2015, Halsey was featured on Justin Bieber’s “The Feeling,” with charted in the Billboard Top 40. In May 2016, she released “Tokyo Narita (Freelstyle),” which former boyfriend Lido produced. The standalone song got her recognition while collaborating with The Chainsmokers on “Closer,” becoming both artists’ first Billboard Hot 100 hit. The single earned Halsey Best Pop Duo/Group Performance nomination for the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.

In January 2017, Halsey released the digital single “Not Afraid Anymore,” which was included in the “Fifty Shades Darker” soundtrack. That June, Halsey’s more commercial second studio album, “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom,” dropped. The concept project, “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom,” centers on a Romeo and Juliet-like couple and was inspired by Halsey’s split from Lido. The project topped the Billboard 200 chart its first week of release and generated the “Now or Never” single, which hit number 17 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It was followed by “Bad At Love,” which went to number five.

Halsey’s third single, “Sorry,” dropped in February 2018 with the release of her latest album, “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom.”

Artist Major Works & Achievements

2016

Named Billboard Women In Music Rising Star
People’s Choice Awards Favorite Breakout Artist
NME Awards Best New Artist

2017

“Closer” with the Chainsmokers wins iHeart Radio Music Awards Song of the Year, Dance Song of the Year, Best Lyric, Best Collaboration awards