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Britney Spears‘ “Lucky” is one of her best songs. Halsey reinterpreted the track in a completely different genre and changed its lyrics for the worse. It’s also not clear if Halsey can pull off a song like “Lucky” at this point in her life. While Halsey’s tribute to the Princess of Pop is commendable on some level, it’s not worth your time.

Britney Spears’ ‘Lucky’ wasn’t as narcissistic as Halsey’s song of the same name

Spears’ “Lucky” is a ballad about a girl named Lucky who cries at night despite being at the top of the Hollywood pyramid. You don’t even have to listen to the song all the way through to understand that it’s a thinly-veiled song about Spears’ life in showbiz. Of course, making the song about a fictional character prevents the track from feeling like self-pity. 

It also broadens the song’s appeal. On one level, “Lucky” is a persona tune from Spears, but it’s also about Marilyn Monroe, Aaliyah, Selena, Peg Entwistle, Mariah Carey, and every other woman in the entertainment industry who has ever faced personal struggles in the public eye. It’s a track about a problem much bigger than Spears or any one star.

Halsey sings her version of “Lucky” in the first person. It’s a song about herself and no one else. That feels a little narcissistic. It also begs the audience to compare Halsey’s level of fame to Spears’ and, sorry, Halsey just doesn’t compare in that regard. Spears was thoroughly ubiquitous in the late 1990s and 2000s but Halsey has been easy to ignore for her whole career.

Halsey reuses the beat from a totally different song

The other reason why Halsey’s “Lucky” ruins the original is that she replaces Max Martin’s instrumental. Martin’s teen pop songs have big, stomping beats that get stuck in your head immediately. Halsey made the bizarre decision to give her “Lucky” the beat from” Angel of Mine” by Monica. It’s a lowkey, boring sample. Why remake a song as melodramatic as “Lucky” only to give it throwaway production? 

Perhaps Halsey tipped her hat to Spears and Monica at the same time to pay tribute to that entire era of pop music. That’s an interesting idea, it just doesn’t mesh on a musical level. Spears probably deserves more direct musical tributes, given her immense influence on the industry. However, we can only hope that it sounds a lot better when another pop star samples “…Baby One More Time” or “Oops!… I Did It Again.”

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The original “Lucky” was a modest hit at best. That might feel surprising in retrospect, considering that the song has colored public perception of Spears for the past two decades. The ballad reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for 11 weeks. The tune appeared on the record Oops!… I Did It Again, which was No. 1 for one of its 84 weeks on the chart.

Halsey’s “Lucky” hasn’t reached the Billboard Hot 100 so far. Maybe it will. Considering the song’s quality and the state of Halsey’s career, maybe it won’t!

Halsey’s “Lucky” is a worthy attempt to pay tribute to an icon. It’s just nowhere near as good as its bubblegum predecessor.

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