Romeo and Juliet meet Halsey in Now or Never

On Tuesday, April 4, Halsey released a gut-wrenching new music video for her brand new single “Now or Never” from her upcoming album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. The music video marks her first directorial debut as an artist.

In the video, Halsey seeks out a fortuneteller, but her future doesn’t appear to be clear and she gets dragged away before the psychic can finish his prediction. The video deals with the same concept of star-crossed lovers that will permeate her forthcoming album, with a blue-haired Halsey trying to be with the man she loves despite being kept apart from him. Following a foreboding tarot card reading, a shootout occurs. Both Halsey and the man she loves miraculously survive, with the clip ending with the singer chopping off her hair.

While watching the video, you have a similar grasp of two different people who try to come together no matter the war that is happening between them. They don’t want to be separated because of family ties. They are from different parts of town that are in a constant war with each other. As you keep watching, you get the sense of Romeo and Juliet and how Halsey’s music video finds that similarity to tell a love story.

For it being Halsey’s first directorial debut, I found that the music video was really well done and crafted to tell the story of how she wants her lover to either love her ‘now or never’ because after the shootout, Halsey gets on a motorcycle and drives away.

The video ends with her cutting her blue hair. The video definitely gave me that Romeo and Juliet story and I really enjoyed how she captured the essence of that story and incorporated how two different people will do absolutely anything to stay together. Unfortunately, just like Romeo and Juliet, the story ends with both lovers being apart because of how the war between the two families ended violently and deadly.

The concept between the song and the music video really define what she’s looking for in love and what it means to love. It all comes together to describe the story of two young lovers enduring hardships and struggles in a dystopian world.

I cannot wait for what Halsey has in store with her upcoming album. “Now or Never” is the first single from her upcoming album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom that is expected to be released in June.