The piece of media that has definitely changed my life for the better is the concept album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom by the American singer, songwriter and actress, Halsey. It was released June 2, 2017 and peaked at number one on the US billboard 200. The albums story and characters are mostly inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Romeo Juliet, with the opening track being Halsey’s own spoken version of the plays prologue. Inspiration for the album also sprung from Halsey removing herself from a toxic relationship and learning to self-love.
Hopeless Fountain Kingdom is a concept album that connects with her previous album ‘Badlands’ - an album set in a dystopian society which she revealed was all metaphor for her mind-set at the time - and she has explained various parallels between lyrics on songs from both albums. The album is set in a futuristic land where souls go that are too good for hell, but too bad for heaven; its revolves are two families: Angelus and Aureum. The Angelus family rules over the kingdom while the Aureum family lives along the common people. When the heir to the throne falls in love with the daughter of the Aureum family, chaos ensues and instead of the pair running off into the sunset together to meet a tragic end, she chooses herself; the album goes on to explore the importance of self-love and respect and spreads a very uplifting an empowering message to her female listeners. The album is noted for swapping the genders of Romeo and Juliet and including same sex relationships. The main character that halsey plays herself is a bisexual female name Luna Aureum (Luna meaning “moon” in Latin), and her main love interest is a male character named Solis Angelus (Solis meaning “sun”). There are also multiple songs on the album that reference to female love interest, one of which features Lauren Jauregui who is bisexual herself and plays the character Rosa in the album. The story is told through a series of music videos as well as the songs themselves.
This album has definitely molded me as a person and taught me to put myself first and always have love and respect for myself despite others opinions. Its raw emotion and honesty makes the album relatable to its listeners and is the reason why Halsey is so loved myself and millions of fans around the world. Its mix of emotional, uplifting, inspirational and empowering songs make the album relatable in almost any mood that you’re in and is almost like best friend to give you advice when you need it. Personally, this album clearly deserved the number one spot on Billboard for taking listeners on an unapologetic and genuine journey of her learning to self-love and appreciate as well as for the incredible amount of time and effort she has put into the music videos and story-line of the album. It was not sixteen random songs thrown together to make an album, It told a story like no other artist out there has and spoke to people all around the wold for that reason. It deserves all the credit there is.
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