Halsey has revealed an incident they experienced in which a “powerful” music executive went through her nudes without consent.
READ MORE: Halsey – ‘The Great Impersonator’ review: a brutal but brilliant reckoning with chronic illness
The ‘Without Me’ singer – who uses she/they pronouns – appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast and opened up about the disturbing incident in which a music executive invaded their privacy by scrolling through their nudes on their phone.
Halsey shared that the whole experience left her feeling “demoralised”. In the chat, the ‘Lucky’ singer explained that the incident happened a few years ago while out with the executive and two of their male managers.
“I mean, I guess it was quite a long time ago, but I was out and I was with this executive, like this really powerful executive who works in music in some capacity. It was very just celebratory, and there was a lot of industry talk,” Halsey told host Alexandra Cooper. “I didn’t feel weird about it at all. I never felt unsafe or anything.”
Halsey explained that they had taken a photo with the executive and had asked to send it to him so he could send it to his niece. They handed their phone to him and told him to send it to himself as they had to go use the bathroom.
“I saw he was going through my nudes on my phone,” she recalled, and admitted that the moment had left them in shock. “I was just frozen…I didn’t even know what to do. I was like, ‘Did I just imagine that? Was that an accident?’” They added. “I was thinking, ‘Did the phone scroll up? What the heck just happened?’ I was like, ‘Did he text them to himself and then delete the messages? I don’t even know where these are now.’”
Halsey shared that the experience left them questioning their self-worth and said: “I went from being like, ‘Yeah, I’m like fucking hot shit and I’m one of the big players.’ And then I sat down.
“And when that happened, in that moment, I was like, ‘You’re nothing. You’re nothing. You’ll always be nothing. You’re still just that fucking girl who’s getting taken advantage of, or like men are talking about you behind your back, or you’re some sort of like, collateral’. I was like, ‘You’re nothing.’ It was so demoralising.”
The ‘You Should Be Sad’ singer went on to say that though they have experienced “worse” incidents within their career, this particular situation stands out due to how demoralising it was.
Halsey also reflected on power dynamics within the music industry and said: “I’m in this exclusive space, thinking I’ve reached the ranks where I am protected…and then this invasive thing just happens on a whim,” before adding that the incident had left them feeling as if they had “regressed.”
The singer released their fifth studio album ‘The Great Impersonatior’ last week (October 25). In a glowing five-star review of the LP, NME shared: “Looking back through her recent catalogue, ‘Manic’ is more stylistically diverse, ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’ more musically ambitious, but ‘The Great Impersonator’ is Halsey’s most honest album – that is if you choose to believe her.”
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