ABC/Paula LoboThe most memorable part in Halsey’s latest single “Graveyard” is probably her abrupt gasp after she sings the line, “The warning signs can feel like they’re butterflies.”
So, what made her add that part to the song? Halsey tells U.K.’s Capital FM it all started with some sage breakup advice from her mom.
“I was going through a breakup and I was on the phone to my mom [saying] ‘I just don’t understand how I could have been so stupid, we were so in love, he gave me butterflies,’” she explains.
“That was your first mistake,” Halsey’s mother told her, advising her that the “butterflies” she felt were actually warning signs because she was “scared and being manipulated.”
Halsey says her mom went on to tell her, “You should be with the person that makes you feel safe and makes you feel comfortable, like you don’t have to fight for their attention.”
Almost a year later when it came time to write the bridge for “Graveyard” she thought of the line “The warning signs can feel like they’re butterflies,” and gasped at the realization that was exactly what her mom had told her.
“I think the gasp was maybe me realizing it,” she says. “That’s why it stayed in there. And now my mom’s like, ‘I wrote that!’”
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