Halsey opened up about the reason why she changed her name and created a public persona linked to it! As it turns out, the story is rather deep and heartbreaking and the singer felt ready to share the details since it might be inspiring to others.
In a brand new interview for Cosmopolitan, the star, whose real name is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, got candid about why she decided to use a stage name instead upon reaching fame.
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She stated that ‘People hear about me and want to paint my story as a rags to riches tale, but that is not true. It was a really slow and painful process. When I look back on it, I am so proud of that teenage girl who dropped Badlands because I had all odds against me. I didn’t know anyone in the music industry. I was from New Jersey. Had no f**king money, and there was no way that I was going to college.’
The LGBTQ+ activist, singer and, more recently, poetry author, went on to explain that ‘Me wanting to do this was far fetched, and the fact that I changed my name —I think I had the foresight to know that being me was not enough. I had to become someone completely different. At the time, I felt like Ashley did not deserve to be famous and successful because she was not that special, but if I made Halsey, maybe she could be.’
The celeb mentioned that, changing her moniker felt like an opportunity for her to create a brand new persona that would then be able to reach unimaginable heights for someone in her ‘socioeconomic situation.’
And since she is now a face for Budweiser’s “Be a King” campaign, Halsey used this as a metaphor, saying that, as far as she was concerned, there was no way that ‘Ashley’ would become a king.
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But when she literally made a new name for herself, it made her feel like she could take her success to ‘paranormal, supernatural heights.’