The singer-songwriter Halsey explores an intersection between love and illness in "The End," an emotional ballad released Tuesday as the first single off her upcoming, not yet titled fifth album. Following the success of 2021's "If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power," the Grammy nominee's newest track chronicles a chilling health struggle and a relationship underpinned by questions about mortality. Halsey initially previewed its release on Instagram earlier this week and confirmed the drop in her latest post to the social media platform, which included videos of the artist's own medical battle, one she had not spoken about publicly before.
"long story short, i'm Lucky to be alive. short story long, i wrote an album. it begins with The End.
out now," Halsey captioned the post. Its first slide is footage of her massaging her calves while seemingly in pain. She has medical tape wrapped around one arm.
"Seriously, I feel like an old lady," she says in that video. "I told myself I'm giving myself two more years to be sick. At 30, I'm having a rebirth and I'm not going to be sick and I'm going to look super hot and have lots of energy.
And I'm just going to get to redo my 20s in my 30s." Halsey attends Gold House Hosts 2024 Inaugural Gold Gala at The Music Center on May 11, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. Olivia Wong/FilmMagic The post includes another video in which she's seated in an infusion chair and wearing a face mask.
Halsey tells the camera that "today is day one of treatmen.
