Halsey Rides Mechanical Bull During Memorable "SNL" Performance

Halsey headlined as the musical guest for this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live. 

Promoting her new album, Manic, Halsey came of the gates strong with her country-style single “You Should Be Sad.” Silhouetted in front of an artificial sunset, Halsey appears riding a mechanical bull and rocking a black cowgirl hat. It’s a thematically coherent performance, but one that soon devolves into fairly regular SNL choreography. Vocally, she stays on point throughout.

For her second performance, this time of “Finally // Beautiful Stranger,” Halsey takes a more nuanced approach, taking the stage with just a guitar. Here, she’s supplemented by a 6-piece band for an intimate performance, reinforced by lengthy close-ups.

Halsey also lends her voice to the skit “Slow,” where she performs an R&B parody. 

Aside from the release of her new album, Halsey made headlines this week when she joked that she hopes the building from which Pitchfork operates collapses. She was seemingly unaware that Pitchfork is owned by Conde Nast and based out of One World Trade Center in New York.

She later apologized on Twitter writing, “Was just trying to make a joke! Intended zero harm. Just figured I could poke at them back with the same aloof passive aggression they poke at artists with! Clearly a misunderstanding.”