Halsey refused to let Katy Perry sing her bisexual love song
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Halsey had the perfect response when her record label asked if she wanted to collaborate with a straight singer for her bisexual love song.
The 22-year-old US singer, who is out as bi, ended up recording the haunting break-up song Strangers with Fifth Harmony singer Lauren Jauregui.
Jauregui came out as bi in November, in a moving open letter to Trump supporters.
The song has been a hit, but Halsey has revealed that the revolutionary act of having two bi women singing a love song to each other nearly didn’t happen.
“The label was like: ‘What about Katy Perry?’” Halsey told Vulture.
The two stars are friendly, having met each other at January’s Women’s March in Washington DC after Halsey grew up idolising the I Kissed A Girl singer.
But when it came to sharing her song about bisexuality, Halsey was having none of it.
“I was like: ‘I’m not putting an artist on this song unless they’re f***ing gay.’”
She then promised that when it’s released, the video “is not going to be me and Lauren half-naked in a bed making out with each other, which is exactly what everybody f***ing wants.”
Halsey spoke more about the subject to Idolator, saying: “I was thinking to myself, if I want this song to be believable, it needs to be real”.
“So I’m not going to put a girl on the song to sing who’s straight. I’m just not going to do it,” she continued.
“I just love that Lauren and I are two women who have a mainstream pop presence doing a love song for the LGBT community – it’s unheard of.
“It’s very rare to see it from a female perspective.”
She also touched on bi-erasure when speaking to Vulture, saying that “there’s a lot of bisexual rejection in the LGBT community.
“When I’m dating a guy, I’m still bisexual.”
Halsey is currently embroiled in a war of words with LGBT ally Demi Lovato, after she referenced Lovato’s lyrics when condemning artists for using bisexuality “as a taboo”.
“That narrative is so f***ing damaging to bisexuality and its place in society,” Halsey said.
In response, Lovato tweeted: “You know a song is a hit when people are still talking about the lyrics two years later. #shhhhdonttellyourmother”.
