Sign up for Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for inside tracks on all things music

Receive our Now Hear This email for free

Receive our Now Hear This email for free

Pop singer Halsey has claimed a ‘powerful’ music executive once went through their private photos without permission.

The “Lucky” star, who uses they/their pronouns, recalled the incident during an interview on the Call her daddy podcast, saying it left them feeling “demoralized” and violated.

“I think it’s been a long time, but I was away and I was with this director, like this really powerful director who works in music in some capacity,” Halsey said.

“It was just very festive and there was a lot of talk about the industry. I didn’t have a strange feeling about it at all. I never felt unsafe or anything.”

Halsey, 30, said the evening took a sinister turn when the unnamed director allegedly asked for a photo of them together to send to his niece: The pop singer took the photo and then handed over their phone and said he would send it to could text his number. because they had to use the bathroom.

When Halsey returned, they apparently saw the director looking through private, explicit photos on their phone.

“I was just frozen… I didn’t even know what to do,” they said. “I thought, ‘Did I just imagine that? Was that an accident?… I thought, ‘Did the phone scroll up? What the hell happened?”

Halsey said they were particularly disturbed by the idea that the director had gone so far as to send the photos to himself: “I thought, ‘Did he send them to himself and then delete the messages?’ I don’t even know where these are now. ”

The singer said they found the experience so violating that they began to doubt their self-worth: “I went from, ‘Yeah, I’m f***ing hot s*** (to)… You’re nothing…you are you still that damn girl who gets taken advantage of, or the way men talk about you behind your back, or you’re some kind of collateral.’”

They described the incident as “demoralizing” and that although they had experienced “worse” in their careers, this incident stood out: “Because it was so casual.”

On the podcast, Halsey reflected on the dark side of the power dynamics within the music industry and their status: “I’m in this exclusive space and I think I’ve reached the ranks where I’m protected… and then this invasive thing just happens. a whim.”

Halsey has released their latest album, The great imitatoron October 25, with singles such as ‘The End’ and ‘Lonely is the Muse’.