What Happened When Alanis Morrisette Wanted to Work With Halsey
Halsey and Alanis Morisette make music in different genres, however, that didn’t stop Morisette from trying to collaborate with Halsey. She even sent Halsey some songs. Here’s how the pop star reacted.
The connection between Halsey and Alanis Morrisette
Morisette made music that was sometimes angry and sometimes introspective. Her singing was raw and unpolished. While she sold millions of albums, she was never the sort of singer one would associate with children. However, Halsey grew up listening to her.
“For me growing up with a Black dad and a white mom, they’re both super young, I grew up listening to Biggie [Smalls], Tupac [Shakur], Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, my mom was listening to Nirvana, The Cure, Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos,” she told PopJustice. “Like here I am as a young child, and I think music is a universal language, it’s how you introduce walks of life that are not otherwise familiar with to people.”
Halsey is an electropop singer whereas Morisette is one of the most famous alternative rock singers of the 1990s. However, their music has some similar vibes. Morisette often used her music to call out men and Halsey also criticizes toxic male behavior in songs like “You Should Be Sad” and “Ghost.” It only made sense for them to work together.
When Alanis Morisette wanted to work with Halsey
In 2020, Halsey released her album Manic. Manic is the most eclectic album of her career thus far. It includes everything from R&B to country to EDM. Over the course of the album, Halsey collaborates with a range of famous musicians, including Suga of BTS, Marhsmello, and Morisette. Her collaboration with Morisette is called “Alanis’ Interlude” and features more sexually-charged lyrics than most of the hits by either artist. Oddly enough, it features a lyrical reference to John Mayer’s hit “Your Body Is a Wonderland.”
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Morisette discussed what happened when she tried to work with Halsey. “I had just given birth, so I had a couple of songs for [my] record that I loved so much, but they didn’t really belong,” Morisette revealed. “So, I sent her a few things, and she wrote an entire song around the chorus. It was beautiful.”
How the world reacted to ‘Alanis’ Interlude’
Halsey and Morisette are icons in their respective genres. So did “Alanis’ Interlude” do well on the charts? The track did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
Perhaps this is because it was not released as a single. Or perhaps it was because Morisette was long past her commercial peak. The song is not quite three minutes long, which is quite unusual for a contemporary pop hit. Hit songs that short were more common back in the 1950s and 1960s. Regardless, “Alanis’ Interlude” is an example of an artist collaborating with someone who had a huge impact on them.
