Basic Information
Birth Name: Ashley Nicolette Frangipane
Birthday: September 29th, 1994 (Libra)
Place of Birth: Edison, New Jersey
Height: 5′ 4″
Eye colour: Hazel
Sexuality and gender: Bisexual and uses she/her and they/them pronouns
Halsey was born to parents Nicole and Chris Frangipane, who dropped out of college when they discovered Nicole was pregnant. Halsey is biracial; her mother is of Italian and Hungarian descent, while her father is mostly African American with some distant Irish ancestry. Nicole is an emergency medical technician (EMT) and Chris manages a car dealership. Halsey has two younger brothers named Sevian and Dante.
Halsey’s stage name is after Halsey Street station in Brooklyn, a place she spent a lot of time as a teenager. It is also an anagram for Ashley.
Halsey has a son called Ender Ridley with Alev Aydin, who was born on July 14th, 2021. In 2023, Halsey and Alev split amicably after three years of dating and Halsey began dating Avan Jogia.
Early Life
Halsey was born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane on September 29th, 1994, in Edison, New Jersey, to Nicole and Chris Frangipane. Her parents dropped out of college when they discovered Nicole was pregnant. Halsey is biracial; her mother is of Italian and Hungarian descent, while her father is mostly African American with some distant Irish ancestry. Nicole is an emergency medical technician (EMT) and Chris manages a car dealership. Halsey has two younger brothers named Sevian and Dante.
Halsey was raised Catholic and moved frequently as a child due to her parents having many different jobs. By the time she was a teenager, she had been to six schools. Musically gifted, Halsey could play the violin, viola, and cello, and took up guitar when she was 14. She grew up listening to the music her mother (the Cure, Alanis Morrisette, Nirvana, and the Cranberries) and father (the Notorious B.I.G., Slick Rick, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and Tupac Shakur) listened to, and was heavily influenced by these in addition to Matty Healy, Taylor Swift, and Brand New. She cites Panic! at the Disco as the “band that changed [her] fucking life” and Lady Gaga for giving her the strength to be herself.
Halsey was frequently bullied at school and when she was 17, she attempted suicide. This led to her being hospitalised for three weeks which resulted in a bipolar disorder diagnosis—a mental health condition her mother also has. Halsey began using drugs soon after as it helped to manage the mood disorder.
In 2012, Halsey graduated from Warren Hills Regional High School in Washington, New Jersey and enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design. Halsey ended up withdrawing her application due to financial difficulties and instead attended community college. She eventually dropped out of community college too and was also knocked out by her parents, who “just didn’t agree with a lot of things about [her].” Following this, Halsey lived in a basement in Lower Manhattan with a group of “degenerate stoners” she knew through her then-boyfriend. When she wasn’t living there, Halsey occasionally lived in one of New York’s many homeless shelters, and said she considered prostitution as a way to make money. When describing this period of her life, she has said: “I remember one time I had $9 in my bank account, and bought a four-pack of Red Bull and used it to stay up overnight over the course of two or three days, because it was less dangerous to not sleep than it was to sleep somewhere random and maybe get raped or kidnapped.” She would occasionally stay with her maternal grandmother during this time, too.
Career
2012-2014, The Beginning: Halsey started writing music when she was 17 and began posting videos to social media sites in 2012 under the username se7enteenblack. She became known for a parody of Taylor Swift’s song “I Knew You Were Trouble,” which was inspired by Swift’s relationship with Harry Styles. Halsey then wrote a follow-up song about their relationship, which was posted online in early 2013. In early 2014, Halsey went to a party where she met a “music guy” who asked her to collaborate on a song with him because he liked her voice. The result was the song “Ghost,” about her ex-boyfriend, which she posted on SoundCloud several weeks after it was recorded. Within hours, the song gained popularity and Halsey was subsequently contacted by several record labels, with the song eventually charting and going on radio. Halsey signed with Astralwerks because they gave her more creative freedom than other labels.
Following this, Halsey played a number of acoustic shows in different cities. She used several different stage names before settling on Halsey. When she was 17, Halsey became romantically involved with a man who was 24 and resided near Halsey Street station in Brooklyn, New York. This is where her stage name comes from. “That’s where I first started writing music and where I started to feel like a part of something bigger than my own in the middle of nowhere New Jersey. Halsey is kind of like a manifestation of all the exaggerated parts of me, so it’s like an alter ego.” The name is also an anagram for Ashley and happened to be the most popular stage name she used. Having written poems for years, Halsey began writing more serious songs as a way to promote them. Music became her “confessional approach” and a form of therapy after her difficult life experiences.
2014-2016, Breakthrough and “Badlands”: In August 2014, Halsey began touring with The Kooks and performed various original songs. She released her debut extended play, Room 93, on October 27th, 2014. The EP charted in the lower regions of the US Billboard 100 and at number three on the Top Heatseekers chart. She then began working on her debut studio album and performed songs from it at South by Southwest in 2015, where she was the most tweeted-about performed of the night. She then embarked on a co-headlining tour with Young Rising Sons in March, and in June, she became the opening act for Imagine Dragons during the North American leg of their Smoke + Mirrors Tour.
Halsey’s debut studio album, “Badlands,” was released on August 28th, 2015. She described it as a concept album about a dystopian future society known as “The Badlands,” which was a metaphor for her mental state at the time, stating that each song meant something different to her. Halsey wrote all the songs on the album when she was 19, while the production was handled by a number of producers, including her then-boyfriend, Norwegian producer Lido. The album was described as not having a “proper radio hit,” but received positive reviews from music critics. Joe Levy of Rolling Stone calling Halsey a “new Tumblr popstar with a knack for sticky imagery.” “Badlands” debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 115,000 copies in its first week, of which 97,000 were pure album sales. The album found success in several other countries, including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, where the album debuted in the top three. “Badlands” was further promoted by the Badlands Tour (2015-2016) and her spot as the opening act during select dates of The Weeknd’s The Madness Fall Tour in 2015.
“Badlands” was certified two-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for US sales of 2,000,000 units. Four singles were released from the album, “Ghost,” “New Americana,” “Colors,” and “Castle,” all of which were certified Platinum in the US. “Castle” was rerecorded for the soundtrack of the 2016 film “The Huntsman: Winter’s Wear.” “Gasoline” was not released as a single and was only included in the deluxe version of “Badlands,” but it became one of the album’s most popular songs and was also certified Platinum in the US.
Halsey was featured on Justin Bieber’s song “The Feeling” from his fourth studio album “Purpose” (2015). Although the song was not officially released as a single, it entered the top 40 in the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified Gold in the US and Silver in the UK.
In February 2016, Halsey was one of the four female performers to partner with MAC Cosmetics for their Future Forward line, where she released a lipstick named after herself. James Gager, the senior vice president and group creative director of the company, said: “It feels like a great thing to be able to support artists who are breaking through but aren’t necessarily at the top top, to push them forward.”
In May 2016, Halsey released the song “Tokyo Narita (Freestyle)” which was produced by Lido. It was a standalone track that served as a promotional single for both her and Lido. In July, she collaborates with 26 other artists, including Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, and Jennifer Lopez, for the charity single “Hands,” which was a tribute for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting. Also in July, Halsey was featured as a vocalist on the Chainsmokers’ single “Closer,” a song she also co-wrote. The track achieved major commercial success, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 consecutive weeks. It sold more than 15 million units worldwide, and is one of the most streamed songs on Spotify (as of 2018). The song’s official lyric video has over two billion views. “Closer” received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Billboard magazine noted that Halsey’s solo verse was a favourable part of the song.
2017-2018, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom: Halsey announced work on her second studio album prior to the release of “Badlands” and continued to work on it throughout 2016 and 2017. In January 2017, Halsey released “Not Afraid Anymore,” which appeared on the soundtrack of the film “Fifty Shades Darker” (2017). “Now or Never” was released on April 4th as the lead single for her second studio album, and it debuted at number 52 on the US Billboard Hot 100, but later peaked at number 17. It was certified two times Platinum by the RIAA. It sold 500,000 units outside of the US. Two further singles were also released: “Eyes Closed” and “Strangers.”
“Hopeless Fountain Kingdom” finally came out on June 2nd and was considered more “radio friendly” in comparison to “Badlands.” Halsey wanted to prove that she could create “radio-ready” music. “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom” is a concept album that revolves around a pair of lovers in a tale based on Romeo and Juliet, with the project being inspired by her breakup with Lido, alongside her bisexuality and other bisexual characters. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200, with 106,000 units sold in the US during its first week, 76,000 of which were pure album sales. “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom” was certified Platinum by the RIAA. Due to its rise to number one, Halsey became the first woman to achieve a number one album in the US in 2017. To promote the album, Halsey embarked on the Hopeless Fountain Kingdom World Tour, which began on September 29th, 2017 (which also happened to be her 23rd birthday).
The next single from “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom” was “Bad at Love,” which was released on August 22nd. The song peaked at number five in the US, which made it Halsey’s highest peak at a lead artist at the time. In December, Halsey’s collaboration with her then-boyfriend G-Eazy, “Him & I,” was released and later leaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was certified two times Platinum by the RIAA in the US. It also reached the top ten of 13 other countries. Halsey collaborated with Thirty Seconds to Mars on the song “Love Is Madness,” from their 2018 album, “America.”
In January 2018, Halsey appeared on Saturday Night Live where she performed “Bad at Love” and “Him & I” with G-Eazy. On March 15th, she released “Alone,” together with a new version featuring Big Sean and Stefflon Don. It was released as the final single from “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom,” with a music video coming out the following month. “Alone” was certified Platinum by the RIAA and reached number one on Billboard’s Dance Club chart, though it only peaked at number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100. Halsey sang with Khalid on Benny Blanco’s debut single “Eastside”, which was released in July, alongside a music video discussing various parts of Halsey’s life. The song peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts of five other countries. It was certified two times Platinum in the US, and sold over one million units outside the country. In 2018, Halsey also appeared in two films. She voiced Wonder Woman in “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” and appeared as herself in a cameo in Bradley Cooper’s remake of “A Star Is Born.” Halsey was also a key advisor on the US version of “The Voice” during its 15th season.
20180-2021, Manic and If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power: After the release of “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom,” Halsey was moved up to Astralwerks’ parent company, Capitol Records. Her first single on the label was “Without Me,” released on October 4th, 2018. Halsey stated the song was very personal to her, the music video featuring a “G-Eazy lookalike” following their second breakup. “Without Me” went on to become Halsey’s most successful single as a lead artist, becoming her first solo number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. It topped the chart for two non-consecutive weeks and remained in the top five for 22 weeks. It also reached top three in the UK, Australia, Malaysia, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland. The song has been certified 9x Platinum in the US, 2x Platinum in the UK, 8x Platinum in Australia, and 9x Platinum in Canada. Due to “Without Me” reaching number one in the Billboard Hot 100 , Halsey became the eighth woman to achieve multiple number ones on the chart during the 2010s.
NOT FINISHED.
Dating History
Halsey is openly bisexual and prior to her music career, she dated a woman.
Halsey was with Matty Healy from an unknown date until 2015. She met up at a concert of his band the 1975 and was a huge fan. She was influenced by his music when she first started writing. From 2015 to 2016 she dated Norwegian producer Lido, who helped produce Badlands and inspired Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. In 2017 she began dating American rapper G-Eazy. The pair met at a party that year and found musical common ground for their collaboration him & I, which discussed their love and lifestyle. They broke up in July 2018, though their relationship was on-and-off again until ending that September. She later confirmed that her 2018 song without me is partially about this relationship. She dated English musician Yungblud from November 2018 to September 2019 and American actor Evan Peters from October 2019 to March 2020.
In July 2021, Halsey’s son, Ender Ridley, with Turkish-American screenwriter Alev Aydin was born. The couple amicably separated and in April 2023, Halsey filed for primary physical custody of their 21-month-old son, so she could take him on tour with her, as well as requesting joint legal custody and joint expenses with Aydin. The two co-parent, with Halsey also requesting that Aydin have reasonable visitation rights and the ability to make health and education decisions for their son.
In 2023, Halsey started dating actor Avan Jogia.
Health
Since the beginning of her career, Halsey has been open about her health issues. Halsey has bipolar disorder which she was diagnosed with at 17, following hospitalisation due to a suicide attempt. Her mother also has the condition.
On December 11th, 2021, Halsey told fans via Twitter that she was diagnosed with ADHD in high school and assumed that she just grew out of it, however she is now medicated for it as a result of seeking mental health treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Halsey was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2016. She attributes a miscarriage she suffered in 2015 due to this condition, originally starting in 2016 that it was due to her hectic touring schedule. Only hours after she realised she was having a miscarriage, she went on stage to perform during a tour because she didn’t want to hurt her career by missing a performance. She chronicled her struggles with endometriosis on the talk show The Doctors in April 2017, where she revealed she was going to freeze her eggs.
In 2018, Halsey was open about her endometriosis and the pain it causes at the Blossom Ball, which is run by the Endo Foundation of America. She said: “Sometimes I’m bloated, I’m on an IV, I’m on medicine, and I’m backstage, terrified that I’m going to bleed through my clothes in the middle of my show.” She also said she wanted to speak out about her condition because the media often portrays her as having perfect physical health despite her struggles. In January 2017, she underwent surgery in an attempt to lessen the pain caused by the condition.
Halsey also has asthma. On May 27th 2018 she said on Twitter that she had an asthma attack during her performance at Bottlerock Napa.
On August 14th, 2019, she revealed that she had quit smoking cigarettes after a decade.
Halsey is gluten intolerant and has been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), Sjogren syndrome, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). These conditions commonly co-occur together.
On June 4th, 2024, Halsey strongly implied on her socials that she was diagnosed with both Lupus and Leukaemia or lymphoma during the past few years when she posted new song, ‘The End,’ which is about chronic illness, and tagged the Lupus Research and Leukaemia & Lymphoma Society social media accounts. Halsey said she’s “lucky to be alive,” implying that she almost died. It’s possible some of her previous diagnoses, like POTS, could be misdiagnoses. In an Instagram post the following day, June 5th, she confirmed and clarified that she was diagnosed with Lupus SLE and a rare T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder in 2022, which are both currently being managed or in remission.
Halsey intends to tell more of her story through her upcoming fifth studio album.
Information taken from Wikipedia, with parts edited and reworded.