“Strangers” (2017) is a moody synth-pop duet co-written and performed by bisexual artists Halsey and Lauren Jauregui. Released as the second single from Halsey’s sophomore album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (2017), the four-minute track depicts two women rekindling a fractured relationship during a house party at Halsey’s home. The accompanying June 2018 music video reimagines the singers as rival boxers battling in the ring — a visceral metaphor for their turbulent dynamic.
The song establishes its queer narrative immediately in the opening verse:
She doesn’t kiss me on the mouth anymore,
’Cause it’s more intimate than she thinks we should get,
She doesn’t look me in the eyes anymore,
Too scared of what she’ll see, somebody holding me
When I wake up all alone,
And I’m thinking of your skin,
I remember, I remember what you told me
Said that “We’re not lovers, we’re just strangers
With the same damn hunger
To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all”
Jauregui’s responding verses reveal a relationship in decay — one reduced to physical intimacy as both women mistakenly believe that’s all the other desires.
Halsey emphasized the authenticity of the collaboration in an interview with Teen Vogue:
I was thinking to myself, if I want this song to be believable, it needs to be real […] So I’m not going to put a girl on the song to sing who’s straight. I’m just not going to do it. So, I reached out to Lauren, and she came in and she cut the vocal and it sounds awesome. […] Our voices sound really cool together because we both have really raspy voices. Mine’s a little more delicate than hers. Hers is like really powerful and big and raspy, and mine is kind of like light and raspy. But it’s really cool.
The artist further noted “Strangers” marked her first intentional use of female pronouns to cement its same-sex narrative.
The boxing-themed video (co-directed by Halsey) amplifies the song’s themes. According to her, the brutal match symbolizes a toxic queer relationship, culminating in Halsey’s character victorious yet battered — comforted not by her former lover, but by a new male partner.
Upon release, “Strangers” earned widespread acclaim, with Billboard hailing it as “a long-overdue bisexual milestone in mainstream music.” The YouTube video surpassed 50 million views, while the track accrued over 150 million Spotify streams.
What makes “Strangers” extraordinary is its rarity: an uncompromising bi anthem about queer toxicity, crafted and performed by two proudly bi women of color. It stands among the most significant examples of bi representation in contemporary pop music.