A Love Letter to Halsey and Lauren Jauregui’s Song ‘Strangers’
It’s Bi Visibility Week once again. That means it’s time for us unicorns to be loud, out, and proud. It’s that magical time of year where we wear the colors pink, purple and blue proudly to remind the world that the B in LGBTQ stands for Bisexual. We do make up the largest percentage of the LGBTQ community so don’t overlook us or ignore us. That being said, earlier this summer a song hit the music scene that blew the roof off the preverbal house we are all living in.
Bisexual singer, Halsey, penned that song. Strangers is a song about heartbreak and the end of a relationship. Something many of us can relate to, no doubt. But what makes this song unique is that the song doesn’t use gender-neutral pronouns, like previously hinted at bisexual themed songs, or male pronouns like even some of Halsey’s earlier work. This song uses female pronouns and it is about same-sex relationship coming to an end.
Halsey wanted authenticity and queer voices
As if that wasn’t powerful enough, Halsey recruited her friend and fellow bisexual woman, Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jauregui, to sing with her. Halsey has gone on record in interviews that she wanted the song to be authentic. She wanted another queer woman to sing with her on this song and she pushed for Lauren to sing with her. So we have two bisexual women of color singing about the pain of an end of a relationship. The Bi community needs to shout this this song from the rooftops!
In the age of Trump, this song is ground breaking and a song of resistance! Okay, some people might read this and say, it’s just a song about a failed relationship. It’s not a protest song by any means. To which I say, that is true. Let’s take a step back for a second and look at bisexual representation in music.
When have we had a song sung by two OPENLY bi women about same sex love? Let alone a song that is about female same-sex love that isn’t overly sexual or written for the sole purpose of straight male gaze? Digging through my musical files, my answer is never. So often we have songs sung by queer artists that use the pronoun “you” instead of gender specific ones. Musicians have given a number of reasons why they make this choice from wanting to be more than just a LGBT song so it can reach a broader audience to not wanting to draw attention to their private lives and partners.
Yet, we can’t rule out the fear of anti-LGBT sentiment that exists. It can be scary to be out and open about your sexuality and relationships. I think that’s something we all understand as queer people. For far too long we have been forced to live in the shadows or we have seen our identities erased or challenged. And with the current political climate, our civil rights and protections that we have fought so hard for are slowly being taken away through the guise of religious freedom laws and plain ole homo-, bi-, and trans- phobia.
Unmasking bi storylines, in song
In the midst of all of this came Halsey and Lauren. Strangers hit the airways. I have to admit when I first heard Halsey sing, “She doesn’t kiss me on the mouth anymore…” I gasped and then I started to cry. I reacted this way because I didn’t expect it. As a bi woman, I have sadly come to expect songs, TV, or Movies to leave us out or for bi storylines to be masked in some way. Halsey didn’t mask it. She sang the word She, unashamed and unabashedly. Halsey wasn’t afraid. She went for it. Halsey who has never been shy about talking about her past relationships with women, put those same sex relationships out in the forefront on this track.
Bringing Lauren in to sing on this track made it even more powerful. So how is Strangers a protest song, you might ask? Well this song doesn’t hide a same sex relationship in the shadows or through the use of gender-neutral pronouns. Halsey wanted to make this song authentic and honest. It goes against what those in power want which is for LGBT people to go back into the closet and disappear. Instead, Strangers shows that queer people are here and we are not going away. We will be singing about love and heartbreak in very public and honest ways.
Bisexual pride on morning television
Strangers has not only been one of the most popular songs on Spotify with over 30 million listens and over 14 million views on YouTube to date. Halsey and Lauren preformed this song on the Today Show together back in June bringing bisexual pride and love to the masses on morning television.
The song also touches on something raw and painful. Halsey has described the song as showing the end of a relationship and emotions we feel. That message is loud and clear but a deeper meaning can be drawn from it.
When I listened to the song the first few times, I developed a slightly different understanding of the lyrics. To me, the lyrics seemed to touch on being involved with someone who is still in the closet. The person wants to be with you but at the same time is scared of the level of intimacy this same sex relationship brings and scared of being open honest with themselves about their same sex attraction. Thus the relationship ends. It struck a personal chord with me and I am sure it did with a number of listeners as well.
Regardless of how a listener might assign meaning to the song, what still stands here is that it’s a bisexual anthem. It is bisexual representation through the lyrics and through the performers. Thank you Halsey for writing this song and thank you to Lauren for being Halsey’s duet partner! Thank you both for giving bisexuals a voice in popular music.
