By Katrina Manzano
If I could tell high school freshman-year me that she got to see Halsey live in concert, specifically for her ‘Back to Badlands’ tour, I’m sure she’d absolutely die.
In high school, I would listen to Halsey’s music religiously, especially her Badlands album. It helped me a lot through my teenage angst years, during a time when I felt so completely misunderstood. I always wanted to see her perform her Badland songs live, but I was too young, I didn’t have anyone to take me, and more importantly, I didn’t have the funds.
To me, Badlands was THE TUMBLR ALBUM. It was so aesthetic.
I never thought I’d see Halsey pay homage to her first album and do a 10th anniversary tour of it until this year. My friend ended up winning the ticket war and scored us some tickets to see Halsey on the opening night of her Back to Badlands tour at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.
If I could describe the concert in one word, I would say healing. It healed younger me to see Halsey perform songs that I’d dreamed of hearing live. I’ve been to so many concerts, but this one was definitely in my Top 3. It was opening night, so everything was a surprise. I would be waiting in anticipation for whatever song she was going to sing next. The fact that the concert was 2 ½ hours long, with about 31 songs on the setlist, is crazy to me. Halsey is such a girl boss for pulling it off. It was also so nostalgic. Everyone was dressed up in blue and pink wigs, wearing Tumblr aesthetic clothing, and Halsey was playing 2016 songs for her pre-show music playlist. It felt like I traveled back in time, and I thought it was pretty cool that the venue was at a cemetery in the middle of October, so the spooky vibes were definitely there.
I loved all the Badlands songs she performed such as Castle, Gasoline, Haunting, Coming Down, Colors, and many others. But the performance that stuck out to me the most was when she performed “Is There Somewhere.” That song is my ultimate favorite and makes me romanticize life, and it’s also super niche, so I didn’t think she was going to perform it at all. However, Halsey proved me wrong, and she ended up closing the concert with that song. As you could imagine, I was in absolute SHAMBLES. During that moment, the crowd was singing along, and it felt so nice knowing that other people loved that song as much as I did. I cried, and before the best part of the song came on—which is where the buildup of the song starts—Halsey made a quick emotional speech of hoping that we figured out everything in life, that we found peace, and that we leave whatever problems we experienced 10 years ago when we first listened to Badlands at that concert.
And so that’s what I did. I left all the troubles and trauma behind me at that cemetery in LA.
Then BOOM! The fireworks went off! And when I tell you it felt like I was in a movie because, oh my gosh, it did; the whole experience and performance to this song was so magical and beautiful, I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
So thank you, Halsey, for making this concert and tour for Badlands worth the wait! <33
