Tag Archives: halsey

Duets in Love

Over the past couple of years, couples have been recording duets across the pop music spectrum.

In 2019 Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes recorded “Señorita” and dished up a couple of steamy performances at the MTV Video Music Awards and at the American Music Awards. The two became a couple around the time they recorded the song and remain so.

Halsey and Yungblud covered Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” when they were dating in early 2019. They broke up later that year, but the chemistry in this video is clear. Halsey wrote my favorite song of her’s, “Finally / Beautiful Stranger”, about their relationship. See that video on my Lizzo, Dua and Halsey post from last year.

Finally, and more recently, rapper turned rocker (at least at the moment) Machine Gun Kelly released this video of “Bloody Valentine” featuring his girlfriend, Megan Fox. Travis Barker of Blink-182, co-wrote, produced and played drums on the track, and the song – as well as much of Kelly’s Tickets to My Downfall album, reflect the influence. OK, this isn’t technically a duet – they just fake it – whatever.

1.5 Billion Views – 1 Grammy Nomination

The 2021 Grammy nominations were announced on Tuesday, and rather than the big news being who was nominated, the buzz has been about who was snubbed. High level – sales and popularity don’t count for much.

Tops on the snub list is The Weeknd. His single “Blinding Lights” from After Hours set a new record for most weeks in Billboard’s top 10, 40, and the video below has been viewed nearly 300 million times on YouTube. Nary a Grammy nom for The Weeknd. Maybe it’s all the blood.

K-pop superstars BTS released their first single in English this year, and the video has been watched 650 million times on YouTube. In fact, the video broke the YouTube record for most concurrent viewers when it debuted – over 3 million. The song earned them their first Grammy nomination, in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance catagory, but nothing more.

Getting a lot of press today for her negative comments on the Grammy process, Halsey has never been nominated for a Grammy for her own music. Her third studio album Manic, released in January of this year, was her best seller out of the blocks. It includes “Without Me”, her top single of all time that has racked up nearly 500 million views.

Lizzo, Dua and Halsey

As a way to say thanks for all they’re doing for us at this incredible time, Lizzo has been buying lunch for hospital workers across the nation.  From San Diego to Boston and seemingly everywhere in between – including Henry Ford Hospital in her home town of Detroit – she’s been sending heartfelt messages on Instagram with each delivery.

In case you missed the 2020 Grammy Awards back in the kinder, gentler era of January, Lizzo was nominated for 8 awards – most of anyone this year – and walked away with three.  While honored for work on her 2019 album Cuz I Love You, “Good as Hell” is from her major label debut with Atlantic Records in 2016.

Dua Lipa’s link to the pandemic is less intentional, no doubt.  The chorus to “Break My Heart” features the prescient lyric, “I would have stayed at home, ’cause I was doin’ better alone”, and the video features a scene on a nearly empty airplane.  Dua, by the way, won two Grammys last year, including Best New Artist.

This one’s a bit of a stretch for the pandemic theme, but Halsey plays to an empty bar in her recent video for “Finally // Beautiful Stranger”.  Had to include it in this post, though, because of all the incredible women dominating pop music these days, she’s my favorite. When you’re done with the video below check out her cool piece of singing-while-painting performance art on Saturday Night Live last year.