A violin-playing kid from Central Jersey becomes Halsey

Before the stage name there was Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, born in Edison, New Jersey, in 1994. Her parents had dropped out of college when her mother became pregnant; her mother went on to work as an emergency medical technician and her father to manage a car dealership. The family moved often as her parents took one job after another. Ashley played violin, viola and cello before taking up the guitar at 14, and grew up listening to Alanis Morissette, Justin Bieber and Brand New.

Her route into the music business ran through social media. Self-released songs got her noticed, and in 2014 she signed with Astralwerks and put out the EP Room 93 that October. Her first album, Badlands, followed in 2015 and entered the Billboard 200 at number two. It was certified double platinum, and its singles “Colors”, “Gasoline” and “New Americana” were certified too; the last of them became her first Hot 100 entry, at number 60.

Then came 2016 and “Closer”, her collaboration with the Chainsmokers, which topped the charts in the US and ten other countries and picked up an 18× platinum certification. Her second album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (2017), had a more radio-friendly sound and debuted at number one, with “Now or Never” and “Bad at Love” both reaching the Hot 100's top 20. “Eastside”, with Benny Blanco and Khalid, climbed into the top ten, and in the same year, 2018, she moved to Capitol Records.

Manic (2020) became her best-selling album, led by “Without Me”, a Hot 100 number one that went diamond. She then turned darker: If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power (2021) leaned into an industrial sound. She left Capitol in 2023 after a controversy over the single “So Good” and, now with Columbia, released The Great Impersonator in 2024.