Halsey clarifies 'shady' comments about Harry Styles' songwriting abilities

19 August 2019, 14:54

By Sam Prance

Halsey defended Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello in her original tweet.

Halsey has clarified what she really meant in her tweet about Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.

Fans of Halsey will already know that the 24-year-old has an extensive history with Harry Styles. Before getting signed to her label, Capitol Records, Halsey rose to fame with her music on Tumblr and became known for a parody cover of Taylor Swift's 'I Knew You Were Trouble' inspired by Taylor's relationship with Harry Styles. Since then she's always been a champion of Harry's talents.

READ MORE: Halsey drags biphobic troll criticising Miley Cyrus for kissing Kaitlynn Carter

However, this weekend (Aug 17), she received backlash from Harry Styles fans over a tweet and now, Halsey has asserted what she really meant by the tweet and cleared up any rumours of shade.

Halsey clarifies tweet about Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello
Halsey clarifies tweet about Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. Picture: ictor Chavez/Getty Images, Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

On Friday (Aug 16), Halsey responded to a tweet from a Harry Styles fan which used him to diss Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.

The original tweet said: "Harry styles wrote sign of the times in 15 minutes" in response to Billboard tweeting: "How Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello's 'Señorita' took eight songwriters and 15 months to become a hit." It seemed like the fan was trying to imply that Harry Styles was a better songwriter than Shawn and Camila.

Noticing the tweet, Halsey replied in defence of Shawn and Camila: "Yeah and there's 6 writers on it. stans always wanna be so loud. Every instrumentalist and producer is considered a songwriter so unless your favorite popstar is fluent in pro tools, everyone is writing with multiple people. This argument is based on a dated system."

Harry fans interpreted the tweet as shade towards Harry's songwriting abilities and started tweeting 'Halsey is cancelled'.

Halsey's tweet about Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello
Halsey's tweet about Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. Picture: @LouisLokinson, @billboard and @halsey via Twitter

After the initial backlash, Halsey tweeted: "everyone is so Dumb." Then on Saturday (Aug 17), Halsey tweeted: "Can’t believe I’m even apologizing to harry styles stan twitter lol but, I was explaining why u can’t compare artists and their songwriting processes cause the credit system is outdated. I would never come for harry. He literally gave birth to me." [sic]

Essentially, it's clear that Halsey meant no ill-will towards Harry with her tweets. All she did was point out that you can't quantify someone's artistry by how quickly they write songs or how many people they work with to create them.

What do you think of Halsey's tweets?