Halsey Biography

Ashley Nicolette Frangipane (born September 29, 1994), known professionally as Halsey (), is an American singer-songwriter. She started songwriting at the age of 17. In 2014, she signed her first recording contract with Astralwerks and released her debut EP, titled Room 93. Her debut studio album, Badlands, was released in 2015.

Early life

Halsey was born and raised in New Jersey as Ashley Frangipane. She is of Italian, Hungarian, and Irish descent on her mother's side and African-American on her father's side. Growing up, Halsey played the violin, viola, and cello until moving onto the acoustic guitar when she was 14. In one of her first interviews, Halsey stated she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around the age of 16 or 17. 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. 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, she instead enrolled in a community college as a creative writing major.

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

Career

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

Halsey toured with The Kooks in 2014 as the opening act. At South by Southwest in 2015, Halsey was the most talked about performer of the festival on Twitter. Through March and April 2015, Halsey led a co-headlining tour with Young Rising Sons. 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. In an interview, Halsey described Badlands as an "angry feminist record," but later commented she had been misquoted and actually meant to refer to it as an "angry female record". In an interview with Billboard in June 2015, Halsey announced that she had already begun writing material for her second studio album. 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. The album included three singles, with the third "Colors" released on 7" and as a five track remix EP "Complementary Colors".

In May 2016 she released the song "Tokyo Narita (Freestyle)" produced by Lido. Halsey provided guest vocals to The Chainsmokers' single "Closer", which reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Artistry

Halsey is an electropop artist. 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. She has called Panic! at the Disco the "band that changed [her] fucking life"? and credits Lady Gaga for giving her to be the strength to be herself. The biggest influence on her live performances is Adam Lazzara, the frontman of Taking Back Sunday; 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." Halsey's other influences include Kanye West, The Weeknd, Brand New, and Bright Eyes, as well as the film directors Quentin Tarantino, Harmony Korine, and Larry Clark. 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."

Discography

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• Badlands (2015)

Tours

Headlining

• Badlands Tour (2015-2016)

Co-headlining

• The American Youth Tour (2015) (with Young Rising Sons)

Opening act

• Imagine Dragons - [[Smoke + Mirrors Tour]] (2015)
• The Weeknd - The Madness Fall Tour (2015)

Awards and nominations

Year	Awards	Category	Recipient	Outcome
2015	MTV Europe Music Awards	Artist on the Rise	Herself	rowspan="3"
2016	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Breakout Artist
	NME Awards	Best New Artist
	Billboard Women in Music	Rising Star