When Halsey released her music video for “Nightmare,” fans praised the singer for offering up a cathartic, angry masterpiece, from her feminist imagery to her punk-rock energy. Now, the singer is giving everyone a closer look at how she made the video happen.
On Thursday (June 20), Halsey released some behind the scenes footage of the “Nightmare” video shoot, showing her working closely with her team of backup dancers to make sure that the meaning of the video wasn’t getting lost. “I want you guys to keep in mind that you’re not cheerleaders,” she says in the clip to a crowd of dancers. “It’s tough, it’s mean…just going totally nuts, you have to pretend we’re your favorite band in the fucking world.”
Halsey also makes sure to pay tribute to one of her favorite bands, Taking Back Sunday, when talking about being excited to use a wired mic again. “When I was playing clubs, I used to use a wired mic and I used to swing it on stage because all the punk bands I grew up listening to used to do it,” she says, twirling her microphone. “Taking Back Sunday — it’s the TBS special.”
In one scene of the video, Halsey and a group of children get off of a school bus and bum rush the camera. Behind the scenes, though, Halsey was making sure that the kids were up to the task for the video. “Do you feel mad?” she asks the kids, to a mild response. “Say it, ‘I feel mad!’” she repeats, this time to a chorus of tiny, angry voices.
Check out the new behind the scenes video of Halsey’s “Nightmare” below:
