It’s hard to think of many pop artists who would centre their debut album (‘Badlands’) around a dystopian universe meant to reflect their own mental state, particularly at a time when talking openly about mental health wasn’t yet prevalent in the pop sphere. That’s a keyword in her story – risk – and one that she’s never been afraid of. “It was an opportunity to take advantage of the state of the world, the state that I was in and the state of music, and try something that was going to challenge me and try something that, commercially speaking, a lot of people would have perceived as a bit of a risk,” they explain. “But it’s really, really awesome – I think you start to get really sad and nervous about how your music connects when you’re not around to bring it to life and to know that it’s still resonating is really, really cool.”įor Halsey, being celebrated as an innovator who constantly reinvents themselves – and, in turn, inspires the music world around them to also evolve – reflects exactly what she was trying to do on ‘If I Can’t Have Love…’. “I wasn’t expecting, I was very surprised,” they say of hearing the news of the honour for the first time. In a four-star review, NME described it as a “defiant artistic statement of their singular talent”.Īnd now, the trailblazing musician will be the recipient of the Innovation Award at the BandLab NME Awards at O2 Brixton Academy in March 2022. Together, they went all-in on the industrial rock sounds that had lingered in the background of her music since the start. In August 2021, she entered a new but equally inventive era with ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’, an album that saw her team up with her heroes, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Ever since, they’ve pushed boundaries and raised bars with their ambitious and creative pop, whether she’s been building dystopian wonderlands (‘Badlands’), crafting their own Shakespearean mythology on a Romeo and Juliet-inspired follow-up ( ‘Hopeless Fountain Kingdom’), or unpicking persona and alter-ego ( ‘Manic’). In reality, a ‘Worst Artist’ award was never on the cards for the New Jersey-born singer from the moment she broke through with her debut album ‘Badlands’ in 2015.
“I would be like, ‘Hey, you know, at least I’m being recognised for something’.” “I guess I just thought the only way I would ever get an NME Award was if it was gonna be that,” Halsey explains over the phone from her LA house one crisp autumn morning. Today, they burst out laughing when they’re reminded of that desire but, while the forward-thinking artist notes they’re “very sarcastic on the internet”, that tweet did give a glimpse into how accepted they once presumed they’d be in NME’s world.
“I always wanted to be voted ‘worst band/artist’ at the NME Awards but I guess they have other plans,” she tweeted at the time. The last time Halsey graced the cover of NME back in 2018, she shared the cover shot with a tongue-in-cheek caveat.