“Without Me” is one of the biggest hits of Halsey’s career, and now there’s another stat to certify it. The music video for the 2018 chart-topping single has surpassed one billion views on YouTube, the artist born Ashley Frangipane’s first video as a lead artist to surpass that milestone. (The lyric video for her 2016 Chainsmokers collaboration “Closer” previously topped the 1 billion mark.)
”Without Me” eventually ended up on Halsey’s 2020 album Manic. But it first appeared in October 2018 as a standalone single, building up momentum throughout the fall and winter and reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in January. It was Halsey’s first song as a lead artist to reach No. 1 following the chart-topping run of “Closer” in 2016. When Billboard ranked the biggest hits of the 2010s, “Without Me” came in at No. 12. Halsey promoted the single with performances on several TV shows including Saturday Night Live, The Voice, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
The song was produced by Louis Bell and co-written by Halsey with Bell, Delacey, and Amy Allen, with writing credits doled out to Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Scott Storch thanks to an interpolation of Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River.” The “Without Me” music video was directed by Colin Tilley, one of the most acclaimed and prolific music video directors of his era. Tilley later directed Halsey’s “You Should Be Sad” video and her 2021 film If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power. He also directed the videos for tracks including Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” Future’s “Mask Off,” and Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” in addition to work with many more stars.
Halsey has said “Without Me” was inspired by several past relationships, including her dissolved romance with fellow musical artist G-Eazy. “The biggest lesson I learned was to make art, not headlines,” she told Glamour. “Because it can become quite easy, in the social media generation, to go from being a musician to becoming a personality.”
