Halsey calls out Demi Lovato for presenting bisexuality as ‘taboo’, Demi responds
By Ross Semple
Demi Lovato has thrown some shade Halsey’s way after she made a dig about Demi’s supposed exploitation of bisexuality for her music.
In an interview with Paper magazine’s Pride issue, openly bisexual artist Halsey discussed the place of queer storytelling in music. “I still see people on the internet saying, ‘Of course Halsey says she’s bisexual. It’ll help her sell albums,'” she said.
“I never came out as a musician because I was already out when I started making music. I was out in high school!”
Halsey argued that bisexuality is never treated as an identity on television, but rather a ‘phase’ or ‘rebellion’ for straight characters to explore. “People write bisexual characters as going through a phase or struggling with something. It’s part of some mental breakdown or rebellion storyline, and that just sucks.”
The interviewer noted that “the closest thing to queer representation you get in pop are songs sung by straight women, and they’re more about experimental hookups”. Halsey replied: “Oh, yeah. Bisexuality as a taboo: ‘Don’t tell your mom’, or ‘We shouldn’t do this’, or ‘This feels so wrong but it’s so right’.”
This could be interpreted as a dig at Demi Lovato, whose 2015 hit ‘Cool For The Summer’ references same-sex hookups and includes the line “Don’t tell your mother”.
Demi’s fans picked up on this, and it wasn’t long before Lovato herself addressed the drama, tweeting: “You know a song is a hit when people are still talking about the lyrics two years later,” followed by the hashtag #shhhhdonttellyourmother.
You know a song is a hit when people are still talking about the lyrics two years later. 💁🏻#shhhhdonttellyourmother
— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) June 23, 2017
Hmmm … what do you think? Is Demi justified in being upset with Halsey’s remarks?
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