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Halsey Wrote A “Petty” Sequel to Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats”

Kaitlin Reilly
Last Updated January 10, 2020, 7:15 PM
Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images.
Halsey’s latest track off her upcoming album Manic is a “petty” country breakup song that comes with a video tribute to some of pop’s most iconic women. 
In the video for “You Should Be Sad,” Halsey — who is rocking a cowboy hat, boots, and not much else — channels two-stepping while calling out a self-obsessed ex. Lyrically, she holds nothing back, guaranteeing the song a place on every post-breakup playlist. 
“I'm so glad I never ever had a baby with you / 'Cause you can't love nothing unless there's something in it for you,” she sings in the chorus. 
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 (Um, can someone check on G-Eazy and Yungblud, please?) 
“The most petty and heartbreaking songs all come from country,” Halsey tweeted after the song’s release. “I wrote [‘You Should Be Sad’] on my living room floor on my guitar. Lots of time in Nashville too.”
If the cowgirl aesthetic and post-cheating blues remind you of Carrie Underwood’s iconic breakup track “Before He Cheats,” well, that’s no accident. However, Underwood isn’t the only woman that Halsey is channeling in her latest video. 
“Xtina, Gaga, Carrie, and of course Shania, this was one loaded with nods to badass idols of mine. Had the vision to do a ‘before he cheats’ but instead about after he does haha,” Halsey wrote on Twitter. 
Fans found a ton of Easter eggs that referenced other women artists. A dance section of “You Should Be Sad” looks a lot like one from Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty” music video. Later on in the video, Halsey wears a long white wig and sits naked atop a horse, which seems to echo Lady Gaga’s entrance at the American Music Awards in 2013.
In another moment, Halsey dons a cheetah print hoodie with matching wide-legged pants, in a nod to the one Shania Twain wore in her “That Don’t Impress Me Much” music video. 
"Was so hard not to post 100000 pics of this," Halsey tweeted of the outfit. "I peaked in life here."
As for who the song was written about, fans can speculate all they want. That’s not the point, says Halsey, who is currently dating actor Evan Peters.
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“I know this may come as a surprise to some people, but you don’t write the song the day before it’s released,” Halsey tweeted of the new track. “the topics are relevant to the time the song was written. it’s visceral when it happens. the writing part helps it go away.”
May we all project our worst breakups onto "You Should Be Sad."
Check out the video below. Manic drops January 17.
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