American singer/songwriter Halsey released a new promotional single from her upcoming sophomore album hopeless fountain kingdom, “Strangers,” featuring Lauren Jauregui of Fifth Harmony, and it’s a big deal for her LBGT+ fans.
The track centers on romantic feelings and interactions between two women and marks Halsey’s first song to be about a gay/lesbian relationship, lyrically. Previously, Halsey’s music video for “Ghost” from her debut Badlands featured intimate scenes between her another woman.
Halsey and Jauregui both identify as bisexual women. Jauregui came out as bisexual on Twitter in an open letter to Donald Trump and his supporters, highlighting many of their views on the LBGT+ community and immigrants as contradictory and hypocritical.
This type of representation in songs by two mainstream artists is almost unprecedented today, despite the changing worldview of LBGT+ people. If this song impacts radio stations nationwide, then more than just fans of the two performers will be hearing them sing about how “she doesn’t kiss me on the mouth anymore” and how “she doesn’t call me on the phone anymore.”
Of course, many will be outraged by this, because that’s just the way it is when these things happen (look at the reactions of numerous groups when Beauty and the Beast featured an “exclusively gay moment” that lasted all of two seconds at the end of the film; literally blink and you’ll miss it).
But there are so many more that are going to be uplifted and positively impacted by this song. In a predominantly heterosexual world, it is difficult for LBGT+ people to relate to many of the songs they enjoy hearing, to the shows the watch on TV, to the books they read, and the to the movies they watch at the theater. Hearing a song about two women struggling to define their feelings for each other in a way that feels so normal and familiar can bring a breath of fresh air to the many that are struggling to exist in a world they often feel doesn’t want them here.
Additionally, the song seems to depict a battle many closeted LBGT+ face as they explore their sexuality: coming to terms with having feelings for someone of the same sex: "it's more intimate than she thinks we should get." Halsey and Jauregui instead sing of avoiding intimacy and refrain from calling each other “lovers” - instead, they are simply “strangers, with the same damn hunger… to be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all,” as if that makes it less real somehow.
As I have said in many of my previous articles, REPRESENTATION MATTERS, in movies, in music, in all forms of media… people of all groups deserve to have their stories told in ways that are accurate and uplifting.
We are living in a constantly changing world, and whether you choose to get on the train or stay at the station, it doesn’t look like it’s derailing any time soon.
To any LBGT+ people reading this, you are valid. Never forget that!
If you are interested in other artists that are members of the LBGT+ community and reflect their sexuality in their music, Hayley Kiyoko and Troye Sivan are great places to start.
Stream “Strangers” by Halsey and Lauren Jauregui on Spotify now!
