FEATURE:
Let Me Be Myself
PHOTO CREDIT: Guel Sener
Halsey, The Great Impersonator and Label Restrictions
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I will not write a lot…
about this, but a piece of music news caught my eye and shocked me. One of the best albums of last year came from Halsey. The Great Impersonator is a remarkable album. Ahead of its release, Halsey posted on Instagram her impersonating a different icon every day and teasing a snippet of the song they inspired. It was a case of incredible artists such as Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Cher and Aaliyah being paid tribute to. Halsey written songs, not so much in their voice. Though there was definitely influence. However, one would think that this album and the praise it received would lead to a quick follow up. As we discover from NME, the label, Columbia, has held Halsey back from making a new album:
“Halsey has claimed she is “not allowed” to make a new album yet, because ‘The Great Impersonator’ didn’t perform as well commercially as her label had hoped.
The singer-songwriter released her fifth studio effort last October, earning her a glowing five-star review from NME and being named one of our best albums of 2024. It peaked at Number 19 in the UK albums chart, and Number Two in the US Billboard 200.
During a new interview with Apple Music 1, Halsey reflected on the expectations of success from the industry, and being compared to major pop acts like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande.
“I can’t make an album right now,” she told host Zane Lowe. “I’m not allowed to. I can’t make an album right now.”
She went on to discuss “the reality” of her current situation, after “‘The Great Impersonator’ didn’t perform the way [her label, Columbia] thought it was going to”.
Halsey added: “And if I’m being honest with you, the album sold a hundred thousand fucking copies first week. That’s a pretty big first week, especially for an artist who hasn’t had a hit in a long time. The tour is the highest-selling tour of my entire career.”
The artist then claimed that her team “want ‘Manic’ numbers from me”, referring to her 2020 third record – which shifted 239,000 units in its first week. “Everyone wants ‘Manic’ numbers from me,” she said. “I can’t do that every single time. It should be good enough that I do it once in a while, but it’s not.”
Halsey told Lowe that selling 100,000 copies in the first week was seen as “a failure in the context of the kind of success that I’ve had previously”, but said it “would be considered a success for most artists”.
She continued: “And that’s the hardest part, I think, of having been a pop star once. Because I’m not one anymore, but I’m being compared to numbers and to other people that I don’t consider lateral to me. You know what I mean?”.
It makes me think that artists, especially women, are discouraged from making albums that are not seen as mainstream or Pop-heavy. If you are a major artist like Halsey and put every ounce of yourself into an album, the reward should be that you are given freedom to do whatever you want. It is ironic that some of the artists Halsey was impersonating on her 2024 faced similar blowback from labels. Kate Bush released The Dreaming in 1982 and there were reservations from EMI. Experimental and unconventional, Halsey told Zane Lowe that she is almost expected to write Taylor Swift numbers. Write music like she used to or what is seen as popular now: “If you actually compared me to the other types of artists who are making the type of music that I am making, I’m fucking killing it. But that’s not what I’m up against. And because of that, I’m at the bottom of a category that I’m not in anymore, when I should be at the top of a category that I’m in now. And it’s hard”. This might be something affecting women more. If they start out making Pop and then do something more personal and less commercial, there is that pressure to go back to the centre. Labels are still about albums making money and units. Regardless of whether The Great Impersonator sold well and was a chart success, it was not as massive as albums by artists like Taylor Swift. Halsey almost killed herself with The Great Impersonator and it was this amazing concept album that was so different and more interesting than anything around it.
It is so discouraging and insulting to artists that do release music that is not deemed purely mainstream or profitable. Halsey has been releasing music for over a decade. She has released incredible music and has this enormous fanbase. The Great Impersonator is her fifth studio album and I think that it is her best. Something that Halsey was very keen to do and pushed herself to the limits to make it as good as she could, it is almost seen as tokenism. Doing that one album that is not purely Pop. An artist getting something off of their chest and then coming back to where they should be. It raises questions about how labels view their talent. Whether what Halsey has experienced is common to others. Instead of giving her carte blanche after putting out an album as original and incredible as The Great Impersonator, there is this financial motivation. Looking at major Pop artists and what they are doing and guiding Halsey in that direction. It did really annoy me. More than that, it opens up discussions around women in music. How there are these limitations placed on them. Maybe an expectation to be a certain thing. Halsey releases this amazing album that took her in a new direction. Rather than it being this huge new chapter where she is allowed to do what she feels fit, she is being held back. It does call into question that she does next. How long it takes for a new album. An irony with the success of The Great Impersonator is that Columbia are not allowing the iconic Halsey to…
BE herself.