Halsey is one of the most popular singers today, and she definitely has a unique voice. If you want to learn how to sing like Halsey, here are my best tips and a video!
Please note: This post is for entertainment purposes only. I am not a doctor or vocal coach, I am just a session singer and I’m giving you my best tips to sing like Halsey. Please do not attempt to change your natural voice permanently, or risk injury by performing incorrectly.
Tips to Sing Like Halsey
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I'm learning to sing like Halsey! Click To TweetI’ve covered how to sing like other singers, such as Amy Winehouse, Billie Holiday, and Dolly Parton. I’ll continue to make these as long as people like them, so please subscribe if you want to stay updated! If you have anyone you want me to cover, let me know in the comments!
I think video is the best way to explain it, so I’ll put my video here:
In case you prefer written instructions, here are my best tips:
1). Make Your Tongue into a “U” Shape
The “U” shape should go further into the back of your mouth, almost cupping your back molars. You’ll especially want to use this on vowels. It will take a while to get the hang of this, so play around with it and keep practicing.
Singers use different tongue positions and shapes, depending on how they feel most comfortable singing. You’ll start to notice patterns associated with different voices, which will allow you to guess what tongue shape/placement your favorite singers use.
2). Focus your placement into both the back of your throat and your nose
Your placement is basically where you visualize your voice coming from. You want to use a combination of your throat and nose in terms of placement.
PLEASE sing correctly here, though.
When you place the sound in the back of your throat, there is a great potential for vocal injury. If you feel any pain, please stop. A vocal coach can show you how to use placement correctly, so you can then move it around your face/head/chest/throat without injury.
In order to get Halsey’s tone, you’ll need to “place” the sound between the back of your throat and your nose. Play around with it until your sound comes closer to hers, but again, do not do anything that hurts!
3). Use a “Breathy” Tone
You can sound more or less breathy by how much air you push through the notes. Halsey has a very breathy sound, so you can achieve this by using more air.
Try this with your natural voice first, to get the idea of how using more breath changes your tone. Once you get the hang of how much air to use, you can combine this with the above tips to sound like Halsey!
Tips for Sounding Like Any Singer
These are some tips you can use when mimicking any artist:
1). Focus on Their Accent
If you’re going to mimic a country singer, you’ll obviously want to mimic their accent too. This applies to every singer, even if their accent is very slight or barely noticeable.
Halsey is from New Jersey, which has a characteristic accent. Most accents can be learned on YouTube, including the stereotypical New Jersey accent:
You don’t need to use this to imitate Halsey, however. She doesn’t have any particularly strong accent while singing.
Where your singer is from will impact how easy it is to imitate them. If you have a strong Kentucky or London accent, you’ll need to work on Halsey’s accent a little harder. I’m from Michigan, so Halsey isn’t super hard for me, but someone like Adele would be a lot more challenging.
2). Carefully Comb Through Their Song(s)
If you’re studying for a specific performance, you’ll want to hone in on that specific song. Otherwise, take time to review any of their work. You’ll see in my video that we go through a couple of her songs in great detail, line by line. If you do that with any artist, you’ll notice little vocal details they have which you can add to your own performance.
3). Do *NOT* Mimic Them if it Hurts
I cannot stress this enough. Never at any point should your throat or voice hurt, whether you’re imitating someone else or singing naturally. Some voices just can’t sound like others, and that’s okay. Nothing is worth a vocal injury!
One Last Important Note:
Be yourself!
These tips are for fun, not to change your voice fundamentally. Whether you’re trying to impersonate Halsey, dressing as her for Halloween, or you’re a session singer who needs that sound, this is just designed to help you for fun purposes.
You can keep elements of your own voice along with another artist. In fact, it would be really tough to mimic someone 100% and remove all of your own vocal characteristics. You can’t avoid being yourself, so you might as well embrace it!
I hope these tips help you sing like Halsey!
If you’re interested, here is a cover I made of Halsey’s song “Graveyard,” which we studied in my “How to Sound Like Halsey” video. I didn’t try to mimic her here, I just used my own voice. This was surprisingly tough to sing!
