In November 2014, someone onTumblrsubmitted an anonymous question to the popular blog Se7enteenblack.
The question went to the person behind the blog: a 20-year-oldHalsey.
She had released her debut EPRoom 93one month prior and was more than up for the challenge.
Halsey at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards held at UBS Arena on September 11, 2024 in Elmont, New York.Gilbert Flores/Billboard/Getty Images
Hold your breath, she responded, plunging into darker descriptions with each sentence.
Fall in love with somebody.
Give them every single inch of your body.
Give them every beat of your heart.
And now imagine them gone.
What color do you see?
Advise a stranger on how to love their body.Each time,Halseycontorted her words to fit the prompt.
Tumblr was like her personal open mic and she loved the pageantry of it all.
After more than a decade, Halsey is still sharpening her craft as a great pop illusionist.
In 2022, Halsey was diagnosed with Lupus SLE and a rare T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder.
A month later, Halsey revealed more ofThe Great Impersonatorwith the blistering rock single Lonely Is the Muse.
This is how I originally wrote it …
Lately Ive been writing constantly from morning to night.
Not for any reason.
Se7enteenblack was deactivated in August 2015, just a few weeks before Halsey released her debut albumBadlands.
She revived it later with a password-protected wall, but then it was gone again kind of.
Those posts just end up scattered across the website, accessible only through whichever accounts reblogged them.
Everything that remains from Se7enteenblack is now marked as being posted by Se7enteenblack-deactivated20150.
You liked me cause I was blue.
It is quintessentially 2014.
Today, thatposthas more than 888,000 notes.
Not everyone made the connection; Halsey was being accused, essentially, of impersonating herself.
When she looks back on her early posts now, it sometimes feels as though she was.
Halseywrotein one of her earliest posts as Tiredandlonelymuse.
Ultimately that journey is what got me here, no?
Plus, no one is really paying all that much attention to Halsey there.
Most of her recent posts barely crack 3,000 notes.
This is the quiet space in between screaming observation and lethargic loneliness.
The platform gave me everything once upon a time, so many years ago.
It felt right to return in my weakest moment.
Its not like she doesnt have an artist profile on the site.
For years, Tumblr has been a haven for young people who resonate with that same sentiment.
Theres an element of world building involved in curating a blog.
Halsey accesses a version of that escapism while creating her albums.
Then, its time to hand the music over to the public.
Her musings become products to be shared and sold.
Promotional materials, pre-order links, and merchandise drops are shared across Instagram, TikTok, and X.
But over on Tumblr, Halsey rarely has to make that switch.
Thanks for keeping my secret until I was ready.
For once, the great impersonator doesnt have to become anyone else.
