Halsy is a known American female indie pop singer and a songwriter who became widely known in 2012, after she made a parody of the popular song named “I Knew You Were Trouble”, performed by Taylor Swift.
Her stage name Halsey is a mix of letters of her real name Ashley. It is also a name if the street in her town.
Early years
She was born on September 29, 1994, as Ashley Nicolette Frangipane in a town named Clark in New Jersey, United States.
Her father Chris Frangipane is an African-American who worked in car retail while her mum Nicole comes from Italy (although she has Irish roots too) and works in a hospital.
Ashley has two brothers named Sevian and Dante. They are both younger than her but she used to get along with both of them when she was young.
As a little girl, she was always interested in playing instruments, especially the one with strings. That is why she has learned to play violin, viola and violoncello. She was very good in playing all of them. When she became a teenager, she taught herself playing the guitar.
She said that high school was always hard for her but not because of the grades but because of people: it was hard for her to explain her bipolar disorder and her schoolmates thought she was faking it, acting depression one day and being too happy the next. After finishing high school with good grades, she got interested in going to college to study fine arts.
Unfortunately, this was too expensive for her parents so she entered a community college. She had her major in creative writing. She never finished community college and she soon started using light drugs.
She started living with some of her friends in basement and sharing everything. During the time she was a teenager, her family went through a crisis and that included Ashley.
She left college which made her parents angry and they have stopped financing her. That is the reason she moved away from home. She moved to her boyfriend but he was a drug addict and she was terrified that she will become one too.
She started playing in bars and doing gigs in order to pay the bills and help her family out. She even went on music tours through different cities, performing as Halsey.
She did everything she could to keep herself secure and not to become homeless.
She had a lot of role models in music and both of her parents were big fans of it, so she used to listen to Notorious B.I.G. and Slick Rick, Alanis Morisette and Nirvana, since she was a kid.
She herself was passionate about Amy Winehouse and Bright Eyes. She was always closer to artists who were different and who were often misunderstood.
She has cried for days when she found out about Amy Winehouse’s death.
Career development
Her career started out on Youtube where she often posted cover of other artist’s songs. In 2012, she got discovered by wider audience after she has released her song titled “The Haylor Song” which was basically a parody of a song performed by Taylor Swift.
She made a parody to describe Taylor Swift’s relationship with Harry Styles, a known English singer – Haylor stands for Harry and Taylor. This parody was very popular and viewed so she became a known name amongst Youtubers.
She realized that she has to use this fame and show her talent as a true singer and a songwriter, not only a parody master.
In 2014, she posted one of her songs on SoundCloud. The song was named “Ghost” and it soon became very popular.
She started to be wanted for performing on stages but a lot of record labels wanted to sign a contract with her. She picked Astralwerks record label and signed a contract with them.
At the end of 2014, she released her first EP named “Room 93”. The EP was well received both amongst critics and fans.
Her song named “Troubled (Stripped)” was later used as a promo song for an episode titled “Best Laid Plans” which is really a part of “Once Upon a Time” series.
She went on tours with The Kooks and Imagine Dragons to promote her album. It was a big thing for her and a great way to promote her music.
Next year, in 2015, she has released her first serious work, an album named “Badlands”. The album was so well received that it managed to come to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Due to her popularity and the fact that she wanted to promote her album, she guest appeared in a lot of TV shows such as “Last Call with Carson Daly.” It was a very good publicity for her.
She was invited to perform at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas where she gained ovation and soon became the star of social media.
Later it was discovered that her name was the most tweeted one that they after her performance.
In 2015, Halsey was nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award and for People’s Choice Award for Favorite Breakout Artist.
In 2016, she was awarded by the Rising Star Award by Billboard Women in Music. It was the same year she was involved in making a song “Closer”, collaborating with The Chainsmokers.
In 2017 she has released her second album named “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom”. It had exclusive cover of Urban Outfitters. As for the promotion of the album, it was something special.
She has organized a global scavenger hunt for a miniature USB’s sticks which were in the shape of a gun were hidden all over the world.
The USB sticks had fragments of the cover and after they were found the cover has been revealed.
It was discovered that Halsey spoke about a real fountain that her former boyfriend built in Brooklyn.
It was her first album to reach No.1 of her the US Billboard 200.
Her song titled “Castle” was on a soundtrack of “Huntsman: The Winter’s War” movie. It was released in 2016 and was a huge hit.
Her manager and her great supporter is Jason Aron and his company Aron Projects.
He is one if the rare persons that understand her character.
Personal life
As for her love life, Ashley was mentioned as a former gitlfriend of Ashton Irwin, an Australian drummer.
It was rumoured that she was seeing Matty Healy for a while. He is a singer if the world famous band “1975”.
In 2014, she was in a brief relationship with a Norwegian musician and songwriter Lido. He was the producer on some of her songs.
In 2015, she was seen with Josh Dun (but they have never confirmed their romance). He is a very popular drummer and a member of a band named “Twenty One Pilots”.
There were rumours that she was dating Andrew Taggart, a DJ from Portland. They never confirmed it.
G-Eazy, a rapper with whom she collaborated on a single “Him And I” in 2017 has left his girlfriend Lana Del Ray to be with her.
They have been together for a year but ended it in the summer 2018. A few months later it seemed that they are maybe together again but it is not likely.
It seems that he broke her heart and that she has taken it seriously. She broke to tears at one of her later concerts.
She is very devoted to feminism and also promotes struggle against sexism and racism. She hates conservative people.
Halsey is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which can change personality. That is why she is involved in all of that.
She is bisexual and she dated the beautiful and famous Ruby Rose for a while.
She appeared in a commercial for Taco Bell which brought her a nice income.
She is in a turbulent relationship with the members of her family. They argue, they make up, they don’t talk for months. She is often sad about this situation which often depresses her.
She has endometriosis so she is thinking about how she has to freeze her eggs although she is very young. She wants to have children with the right man in the future but it seems she has no luck still.
Quick summary
Full name: Ashley Nicolette Frangipane
Date of birth: December 29, 1994
Birthplace: Clark, New Jersey, United States
Age: 24
Profession: singer, songwriter, social activist
Height: 1, 63 m
Weight: 54 kgs
Net Worth: $5 million