BADLANDS Wants You Back

Writing and photos by Meg Clemmensen

Graphic by Rebekah Witt

It’s 2015 - you’re way too young to be on the internet unsupervised, but you’re spending your day scrolling Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter, and you’ve just recently begun your coming of age journey. You’ve recently discovered the joy of pop punk, indie, alt-pop, and the marvelous world of fandoms. You’ve discovered, and are continuing to discover, how music can speak to you in ways you didn’t know were possible. You come across a song called “New Americana” by an up-and-coming artist called Halsey, and while your 12-year-old brain can’t comprehend all of the thematic elements, you fall in love with it. You’ve never heard anything else that so openly critiques mainstream politics and popular culture and speaks to all of those YA dystopian novels you love reading. You listen to the remainder of Halsey’s debut album, BADLANDS, and you’re sure that you have a new lifelong favourite artist on your hands.

Then, it’s 2025, and suddenly, it’s been 10 years since that album was released into the world and brought into your life. You’re still just as in love with Halsey as you were on that fateful first day. You’ve seen her live three times, which is far too few, quite frankly. You’ve admired her just as fiercely through trials and triumphs, through massive life and career changes, and through several more albums' worth of work. Unlike most things, 12-year-old you actually got this one right—Halsey is forever.

My experience with the BADLANDS album was ultrapersonal and immensely formative, and Halsey’s music has had a similar effect on thousands of other fans. Such an immersive, one-of-a-kind album has its ways of changing a person, resonating with them in a way that runs just as strong 10 years later. Halsey has also repeatedly proven to perpetuate genuineness, kindness, inclusivity, and progression, qualities that foster a strong sense of community and everlasting bonds within her fanbase. When they announced the Back To Badlands tour for the album’s tenth anniversary, I knew that I absolutely must attend. The music brought to life, the guaranteed quality of performance, and the general atmosphere were a combination bound to create an unforgettable show. I have yet to experience a Halsey show that didn’t leave me reeling in bliss afterwards, and given how close to my heart this record is, this one would certainly make for an emotional night of making memories.

I travelled back to BADLANDS at the tour’s first show back after Halsey’s well-deserved holiday break. The sold-out show in Toronto was slotted at 8:30 PM on January 9th, and despite the winter day, I arrived at noon to a pre-existing queue of at least 80 eager fans. I don’t spend a day queueing for many shows, but I make an exception for Halsey. While in line, I got a chance to connect with many fellow Halsey fans who had made their way into the city from near and far to watch the show. The fan community showed its kindness when, with a moment’s notice before check-in, I was granted a free VIP early entry ticket by a friend in line who I’d met at other Toronto concerts. As someone who stands at 5’2”, I will jump on any opportunity for a spot closer to the stage. Shortly thereafter, I stood in the crowd only two rows away from the centre of the stage, dazed by the uncertainty of how I even got there, and overwhelmed with gratitude. There’s something so mesmerizing about knowing an artist who usually plays arenas and amphitheatres is about to be performing a foot away from you in a 2,500-capacity venue, and in that moment, you realize you are about to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and everything around you intensifies. Halsey’s decision to capture the magic of the original BADLANDS tour in small rooms, even though her demand heavily outweighs the venue size, is so hugely appreciated by me and everyone else who’s in way too deep to be considered a casual listener.

By the time 8:25 hit, the room was buzzing with energy. The preshow playlist consisted of 2013-2015 internet hits tied together in a nostalgic, marvelous blend that matched the night’s theme and heightened everyone’s excitement. When Bastille’s “Flaws” slowly faded away, the crowd erupted in cheers and screams. Halsey’s entrance came fast, her band arriving first, with her promptly following, leading the room directly into “Gasoline.” I’d decided to remain spoiler-free, aside from knowing that she plays almost all of BADLANDS. I’d both hoped and assumed that they would open their show with “Castle,” given that it also opens the BADLANDS album. I was thrilled to be wrong - “Gasoline” was perfect. The dystopian-infused track led an enthusiastic crowd-wide singalong, inducing happy tears and a rush of serotonin within the fans. Halsey appears just as majestic on-stage as her royal character within the lyrics to “Castle,” which did, in fact, come right after. “Castle” led into a charged performance of “Control,” featuring pristine vocals as Halsey belts repeated adlibs that only appear in the song’s live rendition. It’s an unforgettable way of listening to a song composed of so much teenage angst.

Rather than play BADLANDS from front to back and then follow it with a select set through other eras, Halsey decided to scatter songs from the remainder of her records throughout the setlist. After three of BADLANDS’ most defining tracks, the audience is thrown into the mellow intensity of “Bells of Santa Fe,” one of my favourites from If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power. This performance featured the visual of beautiful twinkling stars projected behind Halsey. It is followed by two of BADLANDS’ slowest songs, “Drive” and “Coming Down,” both of which rank extremely high in my list of favourites. Hearing the instrumental intro to “Drive” in a packed venue caused my soul to ascend and healed wounds belonging to my 13-year-old self. New life was breathed into “Coming Down,” as Halsey’s live performance turned a soft ballad into an electric experience charged with sexuality and mystique.

For the next few songs, the stage visuals transport us to a saloon advertising “Warm drinks and cold women.” Halsey burst into a cathartic performance of “You should be sad,” a beloved song about the aftermath of a toxic relationship, something that far too many folks have experienced once or twice. Aside from her stage entrance itself, the loudest the crowd had yet gotten was singing along to this song. During “You should be sad,” we see the outside of the saloon, but as we transition into “The Lighthouse,” we travel inside the saloon for Halsey to put on a reimagined, disco-infused performance of this rock track from If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power. Given that album’s niche appeal when compared to records like BADLANDS and Manic, I was pleasantly surprised that multiple of those deep cuts made it on the setlist, and I was utterly delighted by this new rendition of “The Lighthouse.” Though I adore the original, this new danceable version scratched an itch in my brain that I didn’t know was there.

After being so entranced by Halsey, it’s tough to recall specific design elements of every song on the setlist. Following “The Lighthouse” was BADLANDS’ “Strange Love,” a wonderfully provocative song and performance that Halsey proclaimed was subject to multiple angry letters from parents after its release. Continuing along with a BADLANDS segment, the next songs performed were “Haunting,” “New Americana,” and “Hurricane.” Hearing “New Americana” live was so special to me, given that it introduced me to Halsey back in 2015. Years ago, Halsey reflected on the cheesy lyrics and swore they would never perform the song again. But even though it may sound a bit outdated, that song was everything to me back when I first heard it. It was such a full-circle moment to scream it out in a room of people who have similar emotional ties to the song and the era that it represents. Likewise, Halsey’s performance of “Hurricane” was such a powerful moment during the show. A little holographic avatar of her sits among buildings in a city called Badlands, as the rain comes pouring down and the real Halsey takes a moment to remind us that we do not belong to anyone but ourselves. For her to come out swinging on her debut album and tell the world “Don’t belong to no city, don’t belong to no man” was such an admirable move, and it’s clear that this song resonates just as strongly within her a full decade later.

“Dog Years” is the first song from Halsey’s latest record, The Great Impersonator, to make an appearance on the setlist. Back-to-back performances of this song and her 2019 single “Nightmare” made for an excellent female rage segment of the evening. “Dog Years” is among the greatest songs in her discography. It has double entendres galore, channels alt-rock icon PJ Harvey, and features a jaw-dropping bridge that somehow sounds infinitely better live. Gasps were heard among the crowd as Halsey burst out screaming her lyrics, all the while performing upside down on the top of the stage. We quickly segue into reds and blacks to illustrate the political anger behind “Nightmare,” a feminist anthem that is so important to be sung in this current climate. Halsey delivered an unbelievable performance, one in which her vocals simultaneously sounded heavenly and loaded with seething anger. It takes an extremely impressive woman to put forth such a strong statement and spend her life and career backing it up with activism.

Another BADLANDS era segment ensues from the night’s climax. We wind it back down to a softer pop sound with “Hold Me Down.” While it might not be as abrasively provocative a song, Halsey continues flaunting her beauty with yet another wonderfully suggestive performance and visuals. “Garden,” a previously unreleased viral demo that was only just officially mastered for the album’s decade anniversary, is the song that follows “Hold Me Down” on the setlist. It’s perhaps the quietest the crowd had yet been, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s because the audience was largely unfamiliar with the technically new song or simply focused on the story unraveling with Halsey’s character on the screen behind her. The story ends with her putting on the signature pink fuzzy jacket she’s seen wearing in the BADLANDS album cover, leading us into her magical debut single, “Ghost.”

“Roman Holiday” and “Closer” take inspiration from Japanese animation, a cultural phenomenon that has inspired Halsey through the duration of her life and career. During her performance of “Roman Holiday,” we see a gleeful anime-style caricature of Halsey dashing along to arguably the BADLANDS album’s most carefree song. The adorable little icon leaps right into another major highlight of the night, Halsey’s 2026 rendition of her 2016 hit with The Chainsmokers, “Closer.” Instead of just herself, we are introduced to her full band as anime versions of themselves. “Closer” is reimagined from an electro-pop jam to a full rock-out session, a version that sounds infinitely better and needs to be officially released stat. Halsey and their band ignite the room with their electrifying energy. It’s tough to make everyone equally happy with one of her most requested songs by casual fans, but one of her most tired songs to many of her diehards. She succeeded in thrilling me, even though I hadn’t listened to the song in years after how overplayed it got. There’s something so completely irresistible about Halsey performing rock music, and I’m going to need her to get in the studio and make this version of “Closer” something I can listen to anytime.

This is right around when the rest of the night starts going by in seemingly just a blink of an eye. After a fast-paced performance of “Ego” featuring rock Halsey once more—this time with her hand-painted BADLANDS guitar—“Colors pt. II” begins a brief interlude in which she is (hopefully) able to take a moment to breathe backstage. The transitional track appears on the deluxe album directly after “Colors,” but for the sake of the show, we begin with “pt. II,” and it carries us into the main event. “Colors” is one of BADLANDS’ most defining tracks, and one of the loudest crowd moments of the night as the room breaks out into a sing-along. It’s so neat to see a song that ran 2015/2016 Tumblr come to life in such a big way, with hordes of people still adoring it all that time later.

After “Colors,” we head into deep cut territory for two more songs, beginning with “Ashley.” My jaw dropped upon learning this one made the setlist - the Manic album was and still is everything to me, and this song is among my favourites. It’s personal and close to the heart, making Halsey’s performance of this song so beautiful as she belts her heart out with all the focus on her. No story playing out on the screen behind her, just Halsey and her talent on full display. An even bigger shock was “People disappear here” making the setlist, a deep cut just about as deep as can be. The Love/Power bonus track is gritty, vulnerable, and clearly loved by Halsey. The fans up front know the song well, but I imagine this moment in the show is here for those of us who waited outside all day, more so than the folks in the back. Blinding green lights flash through the song, contributing to the mysterious, mythical aura of the song.

Halsey then flies through the final three songs in the main part of the setlist - “Without Me,” “Lonely is the Muse,” and “Young God.” She makes it clear she will be back for an extended encore, but that it’s time to start wrapping up the show with all the energy we’ve got left. “Without Me” makes boosting the room’s energy easy, the Diamond-Certified song with almost 2.5 billion Spotify streams, causing the crowd to erupt in screams of joy. Whether you are attending your first or fifth Halsey show, “Without Me” is still a therapeutic moment to call out someone who has done you wrong and feel backed up by an audience of 2500 others doing the same thing. Though it may not hold the same notoriety on the charts, “Lonely is the Muse” is a career highlight off of The Great Impersonator that offers the same level of catharsis when deciding to scream along. Not only that, but it’s one of the coolest performances of the evening. Upon walking into the venue, each fan was handed a pair of 3D glasses and told they’d need them at some point during the show. 26 songs into the set, when most attendees have surely forgotten they have those glasses in their pocket, a notice suddenly appears to put the glasses on. Halsey appears lying down in front of a white screen, with a 3D projection of herself made to look almost as if her soul is leaving her body. “Lonely is the Muse” is angry and exposed, granting us with one more glorious instance of Halsey screaming her lyrics, flexing her vocal abilities, and making one of her greatest songs even better. Finally, “Young God” takes things down a notch, the mellow BADLANDS song bringing the show to a halt, even if just temporarily. It’s probably my absolute favourite song on the record, and its pensive world-building structure couldn’t be more perfect to play this role in the show.

Without wasting even a full minute off-stage, Halsey returns for their self-proclaimed “irresponsibly long encore.” Even more pleasing than her promise to play right until the 11 PM curfew is the fact that the encore consists almost entirely of deep cuts. She comes back out all by herself, without a backup band, to perform an acoustic guitar rendition of her piano track “Trouble” from the Room 93 EP, and follows it with the standalone single “Tokyo Narita.” The latter is one of my all-time favourite Halsey songs that I never once thought I’d hear live, and if you’d told me prior to this tour that it would become a permanent fixture on the setlist, I would have laughed. Halsey’s band returns as she gives the crowd a choice between songs they can hear next - “I Walk The Line,” “Bad At Love,” or “Devil In Me.” Much to my disdain, “I Walk The Line” is cut to make room for the two hopeless fountain kingdom tracks. I’m grateful to hear “Devil In Me” live for the first time, and though I’ve heard “Bad At Love” every time I’ve seen Halsey and would’ve much preferred the deep cut, the song never fails to put a smile on my face. Halsey projects an inversion of the iconic “SEND LOVE” message that appeared in her stage visuals for the original BADLANDS tour, and the crowd is overjoyed to have heard another hit. Reluctantly closing off the night, Halsey jumps against the barricade and sings “Is There Somewhere” up close with the crowd, taking time to wave and clasp hands with the fans in the front and centre. The magical song closes off almost every one of Halsey’s live shows, but it’s a surreal experience every time. The crowd reels in one last opportunity to sing along and admire the dedication Halsey has for her craft and the people who helped her see success, which is so apparent as she involves fans in the encore. She creates a special moment that resonates with all those who have followed her from 2015 onwards, enduring any circumstances that led them to this room on this night. She urges fans to give in to living in the moment, feeling joy, and letting go. 

Leaving the show, I felt overwhelmed with adoration for this artist who helped me so much during my formative years. The BADLANDS album was just as much of a release for the artist who wrote it when she was only 19 as it was for all the similarly aged fans whose lives changed through the music. I knew I couldn’t sit by and only go to one show when she was in town for three nights. Again, through the kindness of the Halsey community, I ended up finding a last-minute ticket to the final Toronto show on January 11th, where I cried more times than I care to admit. Instead of “Devil In Me,” I got to hear “I Walk The Line” and “Lilith” as surprise songs - impressive choices from the audience. I stood towards the back of the room and took in all the visuals, the atmosphere, and the radiant energy. I left the show feeling equal parts fulfilled and ready to drop my non-existent savings on following the remainder of the tour so that the magic never had to end. 

I find myself so impressed by this force of a woman who has conquered so much to be standing on stage today, a decade into her career, having found her people along the journey. To have faced endless health issues only to put out a magnificent, albeit severely underrated record, put on the best production of your career on a summer amphitheatre tour, and embark on another tour shortly after, all the while you weren’t even sure you’d make it long enough to see the album’s release. Halsey’s persistence has paid off so many times, and it’s her unwavering strength and honesty that make me so proud to call myself a fan. The Back To Badlands tour is a can’t-miss event for anyone whose life revolved around indie Tumblr in 2015 or anyone who’s seen themselves in Halsey’s words since. BADLANDS remains such an important album to this day. The tour may be well underway, but there’s still time to score a ticket. The Badlands want you back - are you answering the call?