The second Halsey announced her European Badlands tour and tickets went on sale, almost every show sold out immediately. The tour finally kicked off a week ago, thrilling ecstatic fans all over the world, and has been steadily traveling across Europe as the week passed. Last night, on the 26th of February, Halsey played an intimate show in Amsterdam at venue the Melkweg -which translates to Milkyway. Symbolic, isn’t it? A venue where stars are literally playing for other stars?
CelebMix was lucky enough to be there and stand on watch as Halsey absolutely killed the game.
With a capacity of only 1500 people, it was no wonder that the show was sold out pretty much the second it went on sale. Even with an upgrade to the bigger hall of the venue, the place was bursting at the seams with people who were dying to get a glimpse at the so-called Badlands. A few lucky fans were able to get in earlier to Camp Badlands – where every fan was treated to a Q&A where Halsey was her delightful self. A well-placed, slightly ashamed comment that she had fake nails for the first time in her life and had no idea how to play guitar with them broke the ice immediately. It was brutally honest and endearing at the same time – reflecting much of what Halsey’s charm really is.
The Q&A held more insight into Halsey’s fantasy-filled, incredibly clever mind. When prompted why her Colors-video was so entirely unrelated to the song lyrics, Halsey had no qualms to be a bit self-deprecating: “Have you met me? When did any of my videos have anything to do with my lyrics?”
No one could deny that statement, but frankly, no one wanted to either.
Once the venue filled and the actual show started about an hour later, the screams suggested we were at a One Direction concert instead of at a Halsey show. We couldn’t deny then what we’d known for a long time – Halsey has gotten huge since the time that Badlands dropped. She could’ve sold out a bigger venue with no trouble at all, but, after she had warmed up and gotten comfortable on stage, she shared that wasn’t what she wanted: “My record label asked me why I didn’t just play a bigger venue, but this is much more fun, don’t you think?”
The screams that erupted after that statement spoke for themselves. For a first show in a country she had never visited before, Halsey surely knew how to entertain her crowd and put on a strong performance.
The biggest song of the night was, not surprisingly, Colors. As the music video dropped just the night before this show, it was fresh in everyone’s minds – though Halsey admitted that she “completely forgot it dropped until about, what, an hour ago?”
From the get-go, the venue filled with a perfect harmony of fans and Halsey. The audience recited the lyrics back to her in a way that was deafening and mindblowing, and Halsey proved that her vocals don’t just sound good when recorded and tampered with in a studio – she blows everyone away on stage as well.
For someone who calls herself a songwriter and declares herself as “not the strongest vocalist”, she’s surely not doing too shabby. In fact, we were stunned by her strong live vocals. Say what you want about Halsey and agree to disagree about her opinions, but this performer brings her all to the stage and it shows in her performances. Throughout all the Twitter rants where she defended herself, every outspoken interview and all health problems to boot, Halsey has managed to put on a very strong and conceptual show that highlighted just exactly how happy she was to be able to share her core being with her fans – and she did it fantastically.
Watch our words: once this tour wraps up and she’s planning her next one, she’ll sell out much bigger venues. Halsey herself might still be stunned about getting to play all over the world, but we aren’t – anyone with eyes can already tell that this will soon become a regular occurrence, and we are ready to watch it unfold.