By Léa Ringeval, reporter
On November 10, the 23-year-old pop singer-songwriter Halsey produced stadium-wide ecstasy in Seattle’s Key Arena while touring her second album, “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom.”
The new album has been very successful, selling more than 75,000 copies. She is the first woman with a number one album on Billboard since Lady Gaga in 2016.
Inspired by William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet,” Halsey portrays the troubles she has experienced in love.
“This album will be the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ of our teenage world, discussing same-sex love … modern romance and breakups in the digital age, all on the backdrop of our ‘money hungry, prideful country,’ where it is hard to ‘leave’ and break societal expectations,” Tommy Bruzzese of Affinity Magazine said.
The British singer Charli XCX opened the show and hyped the audience in the arena by performing a selection of her most popular songs that the audience loved to dance to, such as “Boom Clap” and “Break the Rules.”
She was followed by the rapper PartyNextDoor, who was unfortunately not as exciting as I had expected. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait a long time after his performance. The highly-anticipated Halsey made a sensational entrance.
Halsey entered the stage from behind a white curtain, at first revealing only her shadow. As the curtain fell, over 6,000 fans screamed in welcome of the popstar. Halsey started the show by performing “Eyes Closed,” a song co-written with The Weeknd, about moving on from one lover to another.
“You’ve been replaced/I am face to face with someone new,” she sang.
During the two-hour show, Halsey was on a large stage, backed by video screens and a concealed band. The singer was full of energy, sometimes squatting and sometimes dancing during her catchiest songs.
Halsey changed her outfit and the color scheme almost every two songs, to
coordinate with the style of her music and to keep the audience on their toes. She was accompanied by TT, a female dancer wearing a mask. When performing the aggressive hits “Lie” and “Don’t Play,” both of the women danced in sync on a stage covered in a thin layer of water and fog.
Before singing her biggest hits like “Closer,” which was a collaboration with the Chainsmokers, Halsey took breaks to talk to the crowd as if she was surrounded by old friends — showing that even though she is internationally famous, she still has her feet on the ground and a good head on her shoulders.
She was constantly joking in a sarcastic tone, letting her fans know her as a person during those few hours cut off from the stress of the world.
Preceding “Bad at Love,” Halsey asked her fans, “How many of you are recently going through a breakup?”
She received lots of cheering and whooping as an answer. She added, “Well, I know that’s one of the reasons you listen to my songs. But how many of you have ever considered that you might have been the problem?”
The audacity she showed surprised only a few of her fans since most were already aware of how direct she can be.
“Isn’t it a night for taking responsibility?” She continued. “Okay — well, I am going to do so.”
During the concert, the audience got the privilege of getting to know Halsey and the different sides of her personality better — from the sensible woman who sang along a slower beat for the ballad “Sorry,” to the grateful artist who stopped singing a song to hug as many people she could. She never ceased to amaze the crowd.
Halsey also showed concern for the LGBT community.
“If you are a member of the LGBT community or if you are a proud friend of somebody who is, I want you to know that this room is a safe space for you tonight,” Halsey said.
“Hurricane” closed the concert, along with fire, a shower of confetti, a noisy, dancing crowd and a thankful artist who promised her fans they would see her again.
The concert was definitely worth going to. Whether you are a fan or not, you cannot stay bored watching such an epic show, attended by a young crowd who knows how to party, and of course, a truly talented artist who has an amazing voice.
In only a few hours, everybody forgot their everyday problems and simply had fun. During an unforgettable night, Halsey let us enter into her captivating and charming world to explain to us that she was “Bad at Love.”
