Halsey and G-Eazy had not one but two high profile splits last year. The pop star never really explained what led to the couple’s breakup — until now.
On Saturday night (February 9), the 24-year-old singer — real name Ashley Nicolette Frangipane — stepped on the Saturday Night Live stage to perform “Without Me,” one of the songs she wrote in the wake of their split.
As she sang, the words “I’m so sorry Ashley, I cheated” splashed across the backdrop, offering a not-so-subtle hint G-Eazy had strayed during their relationship.
Judging by the additional text on the screen — which included “In New Orleans,” “In Minneapolis” and “In Los Angeles” — it wasn’t just a one-time thing.
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Halsey addressed the dramatic performance on Twitter the following morning.
“as an artist, I have a privilege to remain honest and write about what’s true to me. as a woman, I have a responsibility to not allow myself to be silenced by someone who has done me wrong,” she wrote. “my truth will always come through in my art. death over silence, yo.”
The couple dissolved their relationship for a second time last July after over a year of dating. In a recent interview with Glamour, Halsey explained she used her art to escape the pain.
“The biggest lesson I learned was to make art, not headlines,” she said. “Because it can become quite easy, in the social media generation, to go from being a musician to becoming a personality.”
“Without Me” was released last December. The song became Halsey’s first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and captured the tumultuous nature of an intimate relationship.
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“’Without Me’ is about caring for someone so much that you lose sight of yourself, Halsey explained. “I call myself a collector; I collect things from people and use them to widen my artistic repertoire so that I am writing from a culmination of experiences from the world. But I’m an imitator as well, because I’m so passionately putting myself in other people’s shoes all the time.”
Watch her SNL performance above.