Halsey releases video for new song Nightmare, featuring Cara Delevingne
Halsey’s female empowerment anthem Nightmare. (Youtube)
Halsey has released a new single, “Nightmare,” which has been praised by fans as a female empowerment anthem.
The song and its video were released at the same time on Friday (May 17).
Based on the Halsey’s concept and directed by Hannah Lux Davis, the video only features women—including models and actresses Cara Delevingne and Suki Waterhouse and Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry.
Announcing the song’s release, Halsey tweeted: “Imagine getting onstage every night and seeing young women sweating mascara tears, lightning in their eyes, throwing elbows and raising fists, screaming till the veins in their necks raise under warm skin, and not being inspired by it. This song is about you, for you.”
Halsey’s powerful lyrics about being a woman in 2019 include: “No, I won’t smile, but I’ll show you my teeth,” and “I’m tired and angry, but somebody should be.”
(twitter)
She references women taking ownership of their bodies:
“And I’ma let you speak if you just let me breathe
“I’ve been polite, but won’t be caught dead/ Letting a man tell me what I should do in my bed.”
Twitter users are praising Halsey’s new song ‘Nightmare’
Fans are praising the singer for releasing such an empowering anthem in the same week as a bill banning abortion in most cases, including rape and incest, passed in Alabama thanks to the support of the state’s 25 Republican senators—who are all men.
One fan said: “She dropped this song at such a pivotal time for us as woman who are getting our rights threatened. I stand with Halsey and am so grateful to her.”
Another tweeted: “Nightmare from Halsey is the female empowerment song that came just in the nick of time with women’s rights hanging in the balance. Literal goosebumps.”
(Twitter)
Other Twitter users praised the song and the video for standing up for women’s and gay rights.
“Halsey really said gay rights,” one person wrote.
Another one commented: “Halsey said women’s and gay rights.”
(Twitter)
Halsey came out as bisexual in 2015 and has been a consistent advocate for the LGBT+ community.
In December, she called out a senior executive at Victoria Secret’s parent company who said trans models shouldn’t be in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show because the event is a “fantasy.”
Halsey, who performed at the Victoria Secret’s fashion show in 2018, said she had “no tolerance for a lack of inclusivity.” and invited fans to donate to the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network (GLSEN), an organisation with support services for LGBT+ youth.
Halsey, whose real name is Ashley Frangipane, also wrote and performed a poem at the 2018 Women’s March in which she opened up about her experiences of sexual assault and called on people to unite against oppression.
“Black, Asian, poor, wealthy, trans, cis, Muslim, Christian / Listen, listen and then yell at the top of your lungs / Be a voice for all those who have prisoner tongue,” the poem, titled “A Story Like Mine,” read.
