Hear Halsey’s Menacing New Song ‘Eyes Closed’ Co-Penned By The Weeknd
Halsey debuted the sinister, dark-electro song “Eyes Closed” that’s on her sophomore album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. R&B star The Weeknd co-wrote the dark, synth-y track.
Halsey belts out one of her most soulful vocal performances on the track. The Weeknd’s style is clear throughout, even to the ominously sensual lyrical themes about having feelings for an ex-lover while in a new relationship. “Now if I keep my eyes closed, he looks just like you,” she sings on the chorus. “But he’ll never stay, they never do.”
Halsey opened for the Weeknd back in 2015 following the release of his album Beauty Behind the Madness. The younger singer is setting out on her own massive headlining tour this fall, playing arenas with opening acts Charli XCX and PartyNextDoor. Her tour kicks off on September 29th in Connecticut, and Hopeless Fountain Kingdom will be released on June 2nd.
Alongside the song’s release, Halsey sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and director Baz Luhrmann in a cathedral. She noted how films tend to influence her music including Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.
“I had watched it over and over and over again,” she said, noting that she and Lurhmann had previously sat down for a three-hour brunch to talk about the influence of the film on her new songs. “One day I realized as I was getting to the thick of the rising action of the record — the moment where I’m realizing that the love is this doomed, forsaken kind of thing, I realize that that’s why I was so obsessed with the film. I felt like I was living it.”