Halsey’s new album era is upon us, but before rolling out the new project, the superstar dropped the emotionally naked unplugged single “The End” on Tuesday (June 4). Accompanied by just an acoustic guitar, it opens with Halsey singing, “Every couple of years now, a doctor says I’m sick/ Pulls out a brand new bag of tricks/ And then they lay it on me/ And at first, it was my brain, then a skeleton in pain/ And I don’t like to complain, but I’m saying sorry.”
The singer announced the song just a day prior, seemingly sharing the cover art on social media along with the message: “I’m releasing the first song off my 5th album tomorrow 6/04 at 9am pt / 12 et. Before the first single comes, I wanted to share this. It means a lot to me and I love it.” They continued, “Let’s try something different this time and start at ‘The End.’”
The track was written by Halsey and produced by the singer along with Michael Uzowuru and Alex G and it was accompanied by a series of videos in which Halsey, 29, described her recent health crisis, opening with a video in which she sits on a couch rubbing her legs in pain, saying, “I feel like an old lady. I told myself I’m giving myself two more years to be sick… At 30, I’m having a rebirth and I’m not gonna be sick and I’m gonna look super hot and have lots of energy and I’m just gonna get to re-do my 20s and my 30s.”
The pre-chorus and the chorus hint at a love that is healing and transcends the body’s limits. “When I met you, I thought I was damaged goods/ Had a f–ked up childhood/ And there’s poison in my brain and in my blood,” she sings before leaning into the lullabye-like chorus, “If you knew it was the end of the world/ Could you love me like a child?/ Could you hold me in the dark?/ If you knew it was the end of the world/ Would you like to stay a while?/ Would you leave when it gets hard?”
In a second video she is seen wearing a medical mask while getting an infusion during what she describes as “day one” of treatment, followed by a video from the studio during recording sessions for “The End” and a montage of her treatments. Though she did not specify her ailment, the video’s caption reads, “long story short, i’m lucky to be alive. short story long, I wrote an album. It begins with The End. out now,” along with hashtags for the Lupus Research Alliance and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A statement announcing the single noted that Halsey is making donations to both organizations in conjunction with the song’s release.
The song’s second verse also hints at Halsey talking to a doctor and telling them that they’re “not bitter ’cause I finally found a lover/ WHo’s better for my liver, and now I’ll finally recover.” It ends with defiance and the suggestion that Halsey is not nearly done fighting. “When I met you, I said I would never die/ But the joke was always mine ’cause I’m racing against time/ And I know it’s not the end of the world, but could you pick me up at eight?/ ‘Cause my last treatment starts today.”
Back in May 2022, Halsey opened up about what she said were a number of health issues that she was powering through at the time, which she said included learning about allergies to “literally everything” she’s been dealing with. “My health has changed a lot since I got pregnant and gave birth. I started getting really really really sick. I’ve been kind of sick most of my adult life,” they said at the time, a year after welcoming first child, Ender.
“I was hospitalized for anaphylaxis a few times,” added the three-time Grammy nominee who had previously opened up about struggling with endometriosis, a disease in which tissues similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus, causing severe pain in the pelvis, according to the WHO. “After seeing, like, a hundred thousand doctors, I got diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Sjögren’s syndrome, mast cell activation syndrome, POTS, and I’m still looking for answers to the root cause of some of these things that could potentially be another type of autoimmune disease,” Halsey said.
The song arrives shortly after fans noticed a mysterious website, ForMyLastTrick.com, which features a number of vintage-looking stickers with different phrases including “Master Mystifier,” “You Won’t Find Me Here,” “Southern Belle,” “Candy” and more.
Halsey later confirmed that a new album is on the way when fans clicked on the a ticket stub sticker labeled “The End,” which now prompts a letter from Halsey to pop up onscreen. “As you may have guessed, I have written a new album,” her letter, dated a mysterious “6/?/71,” reads. “But I needed some time to figure out how to say what I needed to say. You see, I’ve been holding [REDACTED] and I need to let it out.”
Halsey’s new record will follow 2021’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power — co-produced by NIN’s Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The About-Face Beauty founder has only dropped a few sparse singles in the three years since, including 2023’s “Die 4 Me” and 2022’s “So Good,” both of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
Listen to Halsey’s “The End” and watch her announcement video below.
