Alt-popper Halsey has returned to the internet in what appears to be a tease for her fifth album. Her most recent LP, If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power (IICHLIWP), released in 2021.
Halsey has largely been offline and out of the limelight since the birth of her son, Ender. She and ex-boyfriend Alev Aydin welcomed the little one in 2021, ahead of the release of IICHLIWP.
In 2023, she dropped the single "Die 4 Me," a rework of her feature on Post Malone's song of the same name, and a remix of her own song, "Lilith" with a feature from SUGA of BTS.
On May 9, Halsey updated her website, formylasttrick.com. The page now shows a partially-tattered, yellowing envelope without a date or address. A stamp with the letters "TGI" sits on the top right corner. Printed in the bottom corners of the stamp are "H5," indicating Halsey's fifth album, and "79 CA-T," which has no clear reference point.
In the center, where a sender's address would go, is a print of a girl. She sits on a stool with an ax in her hand, pointed towards her face.
One clever fan on X noticed that the stool's legs are in the shape of the letter "F." They took this to mean that the letters on the envelope, TGIF, stand for the popular phrase, Thank God It's Friday.
"And the stool being an F. Announcement next Friday also being nightmare 5 year anniversary," wrote @lanadelgay22 on X.
"Nightmare" is a stand alone, feminism-focused single that Halsey released on May 17, 2019, the same day that Missouri lawmakers passed a bill criminalizing abortion after eight weeks of pregnancy.
The number "17" is a key element of Halsey's lore. Prior to her fame, she ran a Tumblr blog called se7enteenblack. She has the number tattooed on her hand. Halsey has used the number for ticket sales --she listed tickets at 5:17 p.m. for a back-to-back concert event at Webster Hall-- and release dates, such as "Nightmare"'s arrival on the 17th of May.
"Seventeen has always been my special number...It's always, kind of, appeared in weird places during times of, like, need...It kind of helps me navigate through everything," she explained in an interview with Z100. "I've always used it in our releases."
If the number seventeen is anything to go by, Halsey may very well release the first single from the unnamed H5 next Friday, May 17. At minimum, fans are expecting an announcement.
Halsey's fifth album will be her first since signing to Columbia Records. She was previously signed to Astralwerks, a label that distributes through Capitol Records.
Some nervous fans think that the website name "For My Last Trick" indicates that this upcoming album will be Halsey's final release, but others were quick to reassure that the singer has merely signed with a new label.
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