When you hear the name Halsey, your thoughts automatically shift to Badlands, “New Americana,” and the badass video she released alongside it. It might surprise a few fans that the 21-year-old—who was born Ashley Frangipane—has now been around in the music industry for an entire year.
The indie-pop singer had her Astralwerks debut on this day—October 27th—last year, with the release of her EP Room 93. Although the EP didn’t cause the same mass hysteria Halsey’s debut album Badlands did, it was a favourite in its own circles. Room 93 reached a peak position of 3 in the Billboard 200 chart and 20 in the U.S Alternative.
Halsey’s debut EP will still be pretty familiar to fans who joined her following after the release of Badlands, as “Ghost” and “Hurricane” feature amongst its five tracks. There’s a clear sense of progression from Halsey’s debut to her album, but Room 93 also contains some incredible tracks that don’t appear on Badlands. “Is There Somewhere?”, “Empty Gold”, and “Trouble (Stripped)” are as raw and honest as we’d expect from Halsey—just with a little less production polish.
The singer, who recently announced a show at Madison Square Garden in New York, now has over 870,000 followers on twitter, and frequently sells out venues all over the globe. Badlands may have thrown Halsey into stardom, but Room 93 is where it all began.
Fans on Twitter have been honouring the first birthday of Room 93 with a hashtag—#1YearOfRoom93—and by sharing the memories of their first encounter with Halsey’s music. It’s been a ride so far Halsey, let’s see what you’ve got for us next!
You can check out one of the tracks that didn’t make it to Badlands—“Is There Somewhere?”—below.