Halsey has responded to reports that some fans walked out of their recent concert in Phoenix during a speech about abortion rights.
At Sunday’s (June 26) show, Halsey encouraged fans to take a stance on reproductive rights, delivering a powerful speech about the need to be active following the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.
“This has been happening for a very long fucking time,” Halsey said to approximately 20,000 concert-goers at the Ak-Chin Pavilion. “I know that we want to sit at home and we want to wait for some revolutionary to come along, to make a difference, but no one is fucking coming.”
They continued: “Nobody is fucking coming. It is up to every single one of you, myself, every single person in this building to do our fucking part to protect bodily autonomy and bodily integrity. To protect medical privacy.”
Receiving an outpouring of cheers from their crowd, Halsey then led a chant, yelling “my body” and spurring the audience to respond with “my choice”.
One Twitter user has since claimed that a number of concert-goers left the venue during the ‘You Should Be Sad’ singer’s speech. “The amount of people who just walked out of the Halsey concert after ‘Nightmare’ when she spoke about abortion was sickening. Fight for what is right,” they tweeted.
Halsey responded yesterday (June 28) by tweeting: “downside of doing outdoor venues: no door to hit them on the way out.”
downside of doing outdoor venues: no door to hit them on the way out 👋🏼 https://t.co/qc8q8mshd9
— h (@halsey) June 28, 2022
Prior to Sunday’s show, Halsey took to social media to share their take on the overturning of Roe v Wade.
“I’m running out of ways to word and frame the severity of the impact that fundamentalism has on our country,” they said, noting that they “need a little bit of time to speak to some people with more authority and experience than me and gather my thoughts”.
“I don’t want to just contribute to antagonistic noise,” they continued. “I’m just defeated at the moment.”
Halsey has long been vocal in their advocacy for reproductive rights. They’ve spoken candidly about their own challenges with reproductive healthcare, and addressed Roe v Wade several times before. During the first show of their current ‘Love And Power’ tour, for example, they screened a video sharing facts about the importance of safe access to abortions.
At their Phoenix show, Halsey screened a similar video while performing ‘Nightmare’. They also presented a slideshow that read, in part: “This catastrophic attack on bodily autonomy will only encourage more dangerous legislation, impacting vulnerable communities the most. Don’t wait for revolutionaries to change the world. Be the revolutionaries. No one is coming to do the work for us. The work is ours and we have to do it now.”
Over the past few days, hundreds of artists have spoken out against the official overturning of Roe v. Wade. Many did so during their sets at Glastonbury 2022, including IDLES, Billie Eilish, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, Jarvis Cocker, Phoebe Bridgers and Kendrick Lamar.
Meanwhile, Lizzo has partnered with Live Nation – who are presenting her upcoming ‘Special’ tour – to donate $1million (£815,000) in funds to organisations offering safe access to abortions.