Colors

"Colors"
Alternate covers
General information
Artist	Halsey
Release Date	February 9, 2016
Recorded	2015
Genre	Electropop
Length	4:09 (See official versions)
Labels
Composer(s)	Ashley Frangipane, Dyland Baukd
Producer(s)	Dyland William
Album	Badlands
Singles Chronology
Previous	"New Americana"
Current	"Colors"
Next	"Castle"
Badlands Chronology
"Roman Holiday"
"Colors"
"Coming Down"
Music Video

"Colors" is a song performed by Halsey. It is the third single of her debut album, Badlands, on which it is featured as the sixth track. It was released on February 9, 2016 through Astralwerks Records. The song was made available as a 7-inch single and a five-track remix EP titled "Complementary Colors".

The single has been certified 2x Multi-Platinum by RIAA as of July 2019 and Gold by ARIA. It is often credited to further launch Halsey's success into mainstream music.

A live version of the song is featured on Badlands (Live From Webster Hall), which was released on August 28, 2020.

Background

During a performance at the Grammy Museum Halsey stated that they wrote most of the song as a poem at the age 17 and later adapted it into a song two years later. She also stated that it was one of her favorite songs that she wrote. Halsey expressed to Complex magazine; "[Blue is] just my creative color. It's like so many things at once. It's electric, and it's bright, but it's also calm. It's also ethereal. Blue is just an otherworldly color to me. Blue is the sky. Blue is the sea. Blue for me represents the unexplored territory". Speaking about the song during an interview with SiriusXM Radio, Halsey stated the following:

"My song Colors is about being in a relationship with someone and kind of watching the vibrancy slowly start to leak out of them, watch the colors start to fade, whether they’re falling victim to drugs or falling victim to work or any sort of negative behavior that’s kind of taking them away from the bright and lively person that they used to be,” she explained. "You can kind of see them start to fade to gray, and you wish you had them back the way that they used to be."

—Halsey with SiriusXM Radio

On January 21, 2016, Halsey revealed the single's artwork via Twitter. The art had been painted on the side of a building located at the intersection of Franklin Street and Meserole Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The picture features a black human silhouette standing in front of a dark green background. Lilac paint splashes around the head of the figure, which is a reference to the song's bridge.

During her early 2016 tour across Europe, Halsey shared an exclusive CD with members of Camp Badlands, providing a studio demo of "Garden" and a stripped version of "Colors". On April 22, 2016, she released a digital EP entitled Complementary Colors, featuring a stripped back version of the original track, as well as 4 remixes.

Cross-references

• The lyric "I'll hope you make it to the day you're 28 years old" is a reference to the 27 Club, a group of popular musicians who died at the age of 27.
• The song is referenced multipe times in "I'm Not Mad" in the lines "I hope your little brother turns out to be nothing like you" and "I hope you live 'til eight-five these days".
• "You were red, and you liked me because I was blue" is referenced in "Lie" in the lyric "Oh, you're turnin' red".
• The color blue appears again in the lyrics for "Clementine": "I'd like to tell you that my sky's not blue, it's violent rain" and "My face is full of spiderwebs, all tender yellow-blue".
• Blue jeans are also referenced in "3AM".
• Some sources link the song to the central love story presented in Hopeless Fountain Kingdom between Luna Aureum (the moon, blue) and Solis Angelus (the sun, red).

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Your little brother never tells you but he loves you so
You said your mother only smiled on her TV show
You're only happy when your sorry head is filled with dope
I'll hope you make it to the day you're 28 years old

[Pre-Chorus]
You're drippin' like a saturated sunrise
You're spilling like an overflowin' sink
You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece
And now you're tearin' through the pages and the ink

[Chorus]
Everything is blue
His pills, his hands, his jeans
And now I'm covered in the colors
Pulled apart at the seams
And it's blue
And it's blue
Everything is gray
His hair, his smoke, his dreams
And now he's so devoid of color
He don't know what it means
And he's blue
And he's blue

[Verse 2]
You were a vision in the morning when the light came through
I know I've only felt religion when I've lied with you
He said, "You'll never be forgiven 'til your boys are too"
And I'm still waking every morning but it's not with you

[Pre-Chorus]
You're drippin' like a saturated sunrise
You're spilling like an overflowin' sink
You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece
And now you're tearin' through the pages and the ink

[Chorus]
Everything is blue
His pills, his hands, his jeans
And now I'm covered in the colors
Pulled apart at the seams
And it's blue
And it's blue
Everything is gray
His hair, his smoke, his dreams
And now he's so devoid of color
He don't know what it means
And he's blue
And he's blue

[Bridge]
You were red, and you liked me because I was blue
But you touched me, and suddenly I was a lilac sky
Then you decided purple just wasn't for you

[Chorus]
Everything is blue
His pills, his hands, his jeans
And now I'm covered in the colors
Pulled apart at the seams
And it's blue
And it's blue
Everything is gray
His hair, his smoke, his dreams
And now he's so devoid of color
He don't know what it means
And he's blue
And he's blue

[Outro]
Everything is blue
Everything is blue
Everything is blue
Everything is blue

Music video

Tim Mattia directed the music video for this song. The video was released on February 25, 2016, and co-starred actor Tyler Posey. The music video for this song was partly filmed in 1120 Westchester Place which is known for being the "Murder House" set from the first season of American Horror Story.

Complementary Colors

Complementary Colors is a digital remix extended play released by Halsey on April 22, 2016 through Astralwerks Records. The EP features a stripped version of "Colors" as well as four remixes of the original track and is 22:51 minutes long in total.

Official versions

Complementary Colors

1. "Colors" (Stripped) - 4:26
2. "Colors" (Audien Remix) - 4:30
3. "Colors" (Sam Feldt Remix) - 4:46
4. "Colors" (Blonde Remix) - 4:58
5. "Colors" (Joel Fletcher & Nathan Thomson Remix) - 4:11

Limited-edition 7-inch single

• "Colors" - 4:09
• "Colors" (Stripped) - 4:26

Exclusive signed CD for "Camp Badlands" VIP Package

• "Colors" (Radio Edit) - 3:30
• "Colors" (Stripped) - 2:57

Live From Webster Hall

• "Colors (Live From Webster Hall) - 4:04

Trivia

• In a 2015 interview with Vevo Halsey revealed that her favorite lyric she has ever written at the time is the bridge of the song.
• The blue "color drops" from the Complementary Colors cover artwork were used as red "blood drops" in promotional If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power material.