Where Were You When You First Saw Halsey Singing Blink-182 At The Mall?

Long before Halsey (born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane) was the super star that she is, she was covering Blink-182’s “I Miss You” and various other pop-punk and/or emo tracks in a mall for adoring fans. I assume the mall in question was in New Jersey, where she is from, but who knows, really. I do know that all of us have seen the clip before, so I pose the question to you: Where were you when you first saw young Halsey “belting” it out in front of The Limited?

My colleague Ashley Reese answered this question thusly: “I feel like i first saw it on tumblr but i could be wrong……. but i FEEL like it was a tumblr meme,” later adding, “my primary thought is, she gave hope to all of us with struggle vocals who tried to copy [Blink-182’s] tom delonge’s unique cadence.” She’s not wrong. I feel similarly about “I Miss You” and early-’00s emo/pop-punk in general. Boys were allowed to whine, to be shrill, and women in the genre had to be Paramore’s Hayley Williams. They had to be some of the best vocalists you’ve ever heard. This is a problem that plagues much of rock music—men can be mediocre, women should be exceptional. Halsey, as evidenced here, was not exceptional. She was run of the mill. And I love her for it.

Also, she has more personality than most pop stars goin’, so all the power to her. I, now, just need to ask you this: when and where did you first see the above clip? Do you remember seeing it? Are you re-watching it now? Are we even alive?