Strangers

"Strangers"
General information
Main Artist	Halsey
Featured Artist	Lauren Jauregui
Release Date	May 26, 2017
Recorded	2016-2017
Genre	Synth-pop
Length	3:41
Labels
Composer(s)	Ashley Frangipane, Gregory Kurstin
Producer(s)	Gregory Kurstin
Album	Hopeless Fountain Kingdom
Hopeless Fountain Kingdom Chronology
"Bad at Love"
"Strangers"
"Devil In Me"
Music Video

"Strangers" is a song performed by Halsey. It features American singer Lauren Jauregui. It is featured as the eleventh track on the standard and as the thirteenth track on the deluxe edition of Halsey's sophomore studio album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. It was released as the second promotional single of the album on May 26, 2017 through Astralwerks Records. It has appeared on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #100.

Background

On May 24, Halsey officially announced the release of Strangers via her Twitter account.

Halsey has said that "Strangers" is the first song she wrote openly using female pronouns rather than using gender neutral pronouns like she did in previous songs. During an interview with Beats 1 Radio's Zane Lowe on May 3, 2017, Halsey stated the following about the track:

"I think I've never heard a song, and I may be wrong, of two openly LGBT women singing a love story to each other on Top 40 radio."

—Halsey

In April during several radio interviews that Halsey attended to promote the album, she further commented about the song:

"I was thinking to myself, if I want this song to be believable, it needs to be real, so I'm not going to put a girl on the song to sing who's straight. I'm just not going to do it. So I reached out to Lauren [who is bisexual] and she came in and she cut the vocal and it sounds awesome. Our voices sound really cool together because we both have really raspy voices, mine's a little more delicate than hers. Hers is like really powerful and big and raspy, and mine is kind of like light and raspy. But it's really cool. I just love that Lauren and I are two women who have a mainstream pop presence doing a love song for the LGBT community, it's unheard of. It's very rare to see it from a female perspective."

—Halsey

On May 17, 2017, Halsey tweeted out a line of lyrics that is assumed to be from "Strangers". A thirty second snippet of the song leaked to Twitter the next day.

The words "Chapter 3" can be seen on the single cover art. This implies that Hopeless Fountain Kingdom is told out in chapters, with each song's position in the story left up to the listener to figure out. However, it could just be a reference to "Strangers" being the third song she released off of the album.

Within the concept of Hopeless Fountain Kingdom the song takes place at the same house party "Alone" and "Heaven In Hiding" take place and follows the story of Luna Aureum and Rosa Angelus. But in reality, it’s Halsey reflecting on another relationship she had been trying to move on from. In an interview with Zach Sang, Halsey says:

"In 'Strangers' two women sing to each other (Romeo’s and Juliet’s perspective) and express their feelings during their first meeting at a house party at her house."

—Halsey on the Zach Sang Show

Cross-references

• The lyric "She doesn't call me on the phone anymore/She's never listening, she says it's innocent" is similar to the lyric "I’ve missed your calls for months it seems/Don’t realize how mean I can be" from "Sorry" and "Said he tried to phone me, but I never have time/He said that I never listen, but I don’t even try" from "Alone". It's also a reference to "Never pick up never call me" from "Now or Never". The lyric is yet again referenced in "3 AM": "And will you please pick up the fucking phone?"
• The line "She doesn't let me have control anymore I must've crossed a line, I must've lost my mind" is a reference to the song "All the Things She Said" by t.A.T.u., another lesbian love song.
  • It also directly mentions "Control".

Lyrics

[Verse 1: Halsey]
She doesn't kiss me on the mouth anymore
'Cause it's more intimate, than she thinks we should get
She doesn't look me in the eyes anymore
Too scared of what she'll see, somebody holding me

[Pre-Chorus: Halsey]
When I wake up all alone
And I'm thinking of your skin
I remember, I remember what you told me

[Chorus 1: Halsey & Lauren Jauregui]
Said that we're not lovers, we're just strangers
With the same damn hunger
To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all
We're not lovers, we're just strangers
With the same damn hunger
To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all

[Verse 2: Lauren Jauregui]
She doesn't call me on the phone anymore
She's never listening, she says it's innocent
She doesn't let me have control anymore
I must've crossed a line, I must've lost my mind

[Pre-Chorus: Halsey]
When I wake up all alone
And I'm thinking of your skin
I remember, I remember what you told me

[Chorus 1: Halsey & Lauren Jauregui]
Said that we're not lovers, we're just strangers
With the same damn hunger
To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all
We're not lovers, we're just strangers
With the same damn hunger
To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all

[Bridge: Halsey, Lauren Jauregui & both]
I miss the mornings with you laying in my bed
I miss the memories replaying in my head
I miss the thought of a forever, you and me
But all you're missing is my body, oh

[Chorus 2: Halsey, Lauren Jauregui & both]
Said we're not lovers (we're not lovers)
'Cause we're just strangers
With the same damn hunger
To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all
We're not lovers, we're just strangers
With the same damn hunger
To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all (anything)

[Outro: Halsey, Both]
To feel anything at all
To feel anything at all
(You lost it)
(You lost it)
(You lost it)

Music video

A promotional music video for the song was released on June 20, 2018. It was again directed by Halsey herself along with Jessie Hill. Halsey explained the video's concept on Twitter:

"The vid[eo] is a metaphor for a toxic relationship. You beat each other down as [yo]u get weaker & more desperate [yo]ur shots get dirty & you fight cheap. You lose sight of what [yo]ur even fighting for. When someone finally wins, what have they really won? Won a fight. Lost the person you love"

—Halsey