Halsey Wrote Britney Spears a Letter Before Using ‘Lucky’ in New Album

Halsey requested for permission the old style approach when sampling Britney Spears‘ “Fortunate” for her new album: She wrote the ’90s pop star a letter.

“She was so supportive out the gate,” Halsey says in The Hollywood Reporter‘s unique preview of the most recent episode of the Sauce on the Aspect with Gandhi podcast, out Wednesday. Halsey provides that Spears’ help “shocked” her as a result of “I believed it was gonna take some convincing as a result of I didn’t assume she knew who I used to be.”

Halsey’s new track, “Fortunate,” is the second lead single from her forthcoming album, The Nice Impersonator. It samples Britney’s 2000 track of the identical title.

“I didn’t simply attain out to her chilly, as a result of, what do you do? You don’t simply attain out to Britney Spears,” Halsey continues. “I wrote this actually lengthy letter… simply speaking about her and the way a lot I really like her within the track. And , what I’d been going by means of and what it meant to me. And I’d additionally simply grow to be a single mother, ? So I actually associated to her in that approach as nicely.”

The singer tells Gandhi that she didn’t assume Spears would ever learn the letter, however she did. “I bear in mind getting the decision that was like, ‘You should utilize the track. She loves it.’ And I used to be identical to, is that this occurring proper now? Like, that is loopy. I used to be identical to, shocked. Yeah. It was a very full circle second from 6-year-old me.”

Halsey has spoken about Spears’ affect on her as an artist, saying not too long ago she “was the primary pop star I fell in love with.”

Elsewhere within the podcast, Halsey additionally spoke about her expertise writing The Nice Impersonator whereas battling a number of sicknesses — in current months, the singer has shared particulars of her expertise with lupus, T-cell lymphoproliferative dysfunction, POTS, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Sjogren’s syndrome and extra.

“I acquired the sort of sick the place you possibly can’t actually go away your own home,” Halsey says. “Your physique begins to look totally different. You lose your hair prefer it was actually only a fully transformative expertise.”

Because of this, the singer provides, she wrote the album in an area between life and loss of life. “I used to be in that in-between area, ready for solutions from medical doctors for months of like, , not solely may I be not ready the place I get to be a musician anymore, however I don’t even know now if I’m going to get to be anymore. And that was terrifying.”

The singer provides that being a mother made the state of affairs much more tough. “Form of like the best factor on the planet ever occurred to me [becoming a mom]. After which impulsively, a very scary factor occurred to me,” she says. “After which I knew that I needed to begin writing as a result of I knew that that was going to assist me course of what was occurring.”

The Nice Impersonator releases Oct. 25.