Halsey Has A Response To Those 'F--k Yous' She Got For Working With Justin Bieber
I think it's safe to say that we are all in love with "The Feeling."
On Monday, Justin Bieber released his Halsey collaboration off his album Purpose, a big and intense EDM track, that not only took fans by surprise, but Halsey as well.
"All of a sudden my phone broke, and I was like, 'Oh, that's how it's going to be? We're just going to drop a song like that, huh, Justin?'" Halsey told me on the phone from Colorado, where she is currently playing on her Badlands Tour. "I had no idea he was dropping it."
The song, which was released the same day as Justin and Ed Sheeran's "Love Yourself," marks the "New Americana" singer's first collaboration with another artist, something that she had no intention of doing -- "I'm very, very adamant about not doing songs that I didn't write." Luckily, Skrillex was there to fix that problem.
"Sonny [Skrillex] sent me this song, and my manager was like, 'Justin asked Scooter [Braun] if you would hop on it. They seemed pretty adamant about it, and I was like 'Oh that's weird.' I listened to it and the version I listened to was just him singing at first and I was kind of like, 'Holy s--t, this song is amazing,' and then it got to the pre-chorus and he said 'jagged like a pill so hard to swallow' and I was sold," Halsey said, referencing Alanis Morissette's 1995 critically acclaimed album, Jagged Little Pill. "Because I spent my whole childhood listening to Alanis Morissette."
A photo posted by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on
When news broke that these two, who met briefly at the 2015 VMAs, were teaming up for a track, Halsey revealed that many fans "hated it," saying that not only did were their styles mismatched, but that Halsey was "selling out" to mainstream music. It's something she couldn't disagree with more.
"I don't feel like I compromised any sort of integrity," she said. "I don't feel I will get another opportunity as perfect as this, and Sonny was really really awesome in the production and the styling of the collaboration, making sure it was equally my style as it was Justin's because it's a scary thing for me because coming up as an alternative artist and then kind of slowly making this breach into the mainstream and then out of nowhere, this collaboration with Justin Bieber."
She continued, "It's like a lot of people were like, 'f--k you, you sold out,' and I kind of beg to differ. I think it's the opposite because it's 2015. Justin Bieber is cool. He's cool as hell. It's 2015. I don't think that's the case at all, and I'm honored to be a part of it."
Next up for Justin and Halsey -- who admitted that while she wasn't a "super mega hardcore" JB fan, she's always loved his music -- is their first official meeting, which may or may not take place on the set of the song's music video.
"I honestly can't say too much about it," Halsey said of the video. "I'm terrified of giving away too much information. Imagine if I f--k up Bieber's roll-out plan? There will definitely be a music video, given the song. It should be really, really interesting to see what people think when we put out a video. That's all I can say."
