Nightmare

“Nightmare,” a song dedicated to young women, is Halsey’s first solo release from 2019, following hit single “Without Me”. Despite “Without Me” featuring on Halsey’s third LP, “Nightmare” was originally intended to be the lead single of the third studio album Manic, but was ultimately cut, however it was included (along with “Reprise” version of that song) on the extended version of “If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power”. Lyrically, the track acts as a follow-up to “Devil In Me,” a track from 2017 album hopeless fountain kingdom, which discusses Halsey’s passive past.

The track was officially announced following her show at Webster Hall in honor of previous album hopeless fountain kingdom. Around this time, Halsey added a new website to her social media bios, dedicated to the interpretation of nightmares.

On the inspiration for the song, Halsey said:

“I was thinking about the way my experiences relate to my fans. One of the things that a lot of myself, and a lot of my young female fans of mine have, is the experience of when someone is telling you to smile. At some point, some man will look at you say, ‘Ay, why don’t you smile? You’re so frigid. She would be so much nicer if she smiled. What a pretty face, you should just smile.’ And you’re like, ‘I don’t want to!’ If you don’t, then the narrative about you becomes, ‘Oh that girl’s such a nightmare. She’s so difficult, she’s such a nightmare.’ I used to not like that, and I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I don’t want anyone to think I’m a nightmare. I don’t want people to think I’m mean or rude.’ So I found myself in situations smiling when I didn’t want to smile or being nice to people who probably didn’t deserve it. Not anymore, I’d rather be a nightmare than a bunch of jerks get away with forcing me into some kind of complacency, or some kind of convenience or positivity because they want to see it. It’s for their own entertainment, and it makes them more comfortable. It doesn’t matter if you’re a famous person, or any person we can all relate to that experience."