"Nightmare" is a song by American singer Halsey. It was released as a single on May 17, 2019 and was sent to top 40 radio on May 21, 2019 through

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

. The song was written by Halsey along with its producers

Benny Blanco Benjamin Joseph Levin (born March 8, 1988), known professionally as Benny Blanco (stylized in all lowercase), is an American record producer. He is the recipient of the 2013 Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also ...

Cashmere Cat Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for producing songs for artists including Kanye West, The Kid Laroi, Selena Gomez ...

, and Happy Perez. The music video, directed by

Hannah Lux Davis Hannah Lux Davis (born May 17, 1986) is an American music video, commercial and film director. She's known for her work especially with female artists, such as Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Christ ...

, accompanied its release the same day. The song was added as a bonus track on the extended version of Halsey's fourth studio album '' If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power''.

Composition

"Nightmare" is written in the key

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...

with 146

beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

. The song contains an

interpolation In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one often has a n ...

of "

All the Things She Said "All the Things She Said" is a song recorded by Russian music duo t.A.T.u. for their second, and first English-language, studio album ''200 km/h in the Wrong Lane'' (2002), and released as the lead single from the album in Europe on 9 September ...

" by Russian duo

t.A.T.u t.A.T.u. (russian: Тату, ) were a Russian music duo that consisted of Lena Katina and Julia Volkova. The singers were part of children's music group Neposedy before being managed by producer and director Ivan Shapovalov and signing with ...

. Elena Kiper, one of the songwriters of t.A.T.u's song, posted on her Instagram that an initial version of Halsey's track "contained an extensive interpolation of the original work" but later the sample was changed by G-Eazy, although the latter isn't credited on the work.

Promotion

In May 2019, Halsey posted a link on her social media, directing users to the website "nightma.re" to sign up for email alerts and prompting them to share what their worst nightmare is. The site gave a series of options, and upon clicking one of the options, users would be shown an explanation as to the meaning of that specific nightmare. Fans also believed that the time tickets for her recent intimate concerts went on sale, 5:17 PM, was a hint towards the date new music would be released, although Halsey claimed no knowledge of this and only said new music would be coming "sooner than you think". She then announced the single's release date on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

on May 9, 2019, posting a video of her revealing the title at one of her concerts, and captioning it "new single. NIGHTMARE. may 17th". Several days later, Halsey announced she had hidden lyrics of the song in five US cities:

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. On May 20, 2019, Halsey performed a free show for fans in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, where she performed the single live for the first time, along with "

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

", "

Gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

", " Without Me" and "

Don't Play "Don't Play" is a song by English singer-songwriter Anne-Marie, British YouTuber and rapper KSI, and English DJ and record producer Digital Farm Animals. The song was written by the three artists alongside Mojam, Andrew Murray, S-X, Richard B ...

". She uploaded a video of some of the performances on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

following the show.

Music video

The music video for "Nightmare" premiered on

on May 16, 2019. Directed by

, the video features appearances by

Cara Delevingne Cara Jocelyn Delevingne ( ; born 12 August 1992) is an English model and actress. She signed with Storm Management after leaving school in 2009. Delevingne won Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2012 and 2014. Delevingne sta ...

Debbie Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in ...

Ryan Destiny Ryan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) *Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Division of Ryan, an elector ...

, and

Suki Waterhouse Alice Suki Waterhouse (born 5 January 1992) is an English model, actress and singer. She began a career in modelling at the age of 16, and she would go on to model for several major fashion labels. Her first feature film as an actress was a min ...

Critical reception

The song has received positive reviews. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine said the song is musically "unorthodox" containing "stylistic curveballs" and "killer lines" that "exalt autonomy, sexual freedom and self-acceptance". The line "I've been polite, but I won't be caught dead/ Letting a man tell me what I should do in my bed" was noted as a "barbed assault on patriarchal expectation" by ''Billboard'' and "a necessary gesture of rage and empowerment" by ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''. ''

'' named it the 17th best song of 2019.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * Tidal (album), ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * ...

. * Halsey – vocals, songwriting *

– production, songwriting, record engineering, keyboards, programming *

– production, songwriting, keyboards, programming * Happy Perez – production, songwriting, guitar, programming *

Elena Kiper Nichya (Ничья in Russian Cyrillic; translates as "No one's"), is a singing, songwriting and producing duet consisting of Elena Kiper and Oleg Borschevsky. The group has released four singles, and one album to date, and has gained much popu ...

– songwriting * Ivan Nikolaevich Shapovalov – songwriting *

Martin Kierszenbaum Martin Kierszenbaum, also known by his pseudonym Cherry Cherry Boom Boom, is an American music personality. As a songwriter and producer he worked with Lady Gaga, Sting, Madonna, Mylène Farmer, Keane, Tokio Hotel, Far East Movement, Robyn, Fei ...

– songwriting *

Sergio Galoyan Sergey Galoyan (russian: Сергей Галоян, born 25 December 1981) is an ASCAP/ PRS Award–winning songwriter/producer and DJ, born in Moscow. He is more commonly known as Sergio Galoyan and is of Armenian descent. One of the creators o ...

– songwriting *

Trevor Horn Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949) is an English music producer, label and recording studio owner, musician and composer. He is best known for his production work in the 1980s, and for being one half of the new wave band The Buggles (wit ...

– songwriting * Valerij Valentinovich Polienko – songwriting * John Hanes – mixing engineering *

Serban Ghenea Șerban Ghenea (born October 13, 1969) is a Grammy award-winning Romanian-Canadian audio engineer and mixer. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1969. In 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. He later attended ...

– mixing *

Chris Gehringer Chris Gehringer (born May 27, 1962) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered recordings such as Gwen Stefani's '' Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' (2004), Rihanna's '' Loud'' (2010), Lady Gaga's '' Born This Way'' (2011) and Drake' ...

– mastering engineering

Awards and nominations

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Nightmare (reprise)

"Nightmare (reprise)" is a song by Halsey included on the Walmart bonus track edition of her fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

'' If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power'' (2021). The song is a re-produced version of "Nightmare" created to match the sound of the album. It was first teased by

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

when a 25 second snippet of a censored version of the song was posted to their website as promotional material for their Walmart exclusive version of the album. It was later added to the extended edition of the album along with "People Disappear Here" and the original "Nightmare".

Release history

References

{{authority control 2019 singles 2019 songs Capitol Records singles Halsey (singer) songs Music videos directed by Hannah Lux Davis Songs written by Benny Blanco Songs written by Cashmere Cat Songs written by Halsey (singer) Songs written by Happy Perez Songs written by Martin Kierszenbaum Songs written by Trevor Horn Songs written by Elena Kiper Song recordings produced by Benny Blanco Song recordings produced by Cashmere Cat Songs about nightmares