Singer Halsey has recreated Bert Stern’s 1962 portrait of Marilyn with photographer Sarah Pardini as part of the promotional campaign for her latest album, The Great Impersonator.
Over 18 days, Halsey posted images inspired by musical icons from Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush to Dolly Parton and Britney Spears on her Instagram, each referencing a song title. Apart from David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen, these figures are all women – and Marilyn is the only actress, although she also sang.
In her final posts, Halsey’s Marilyn tribute is linked to the album’s opening track, ‘Only Living Girl in LA.’ “I am honouring the most impersonated woman in history,” she says of Marilyn. “A woman who eventually had to impersonate herself, day after day; asking the question ‘Want to see me become her?'”
Although Halsey was born and raised in New Jersey, the title may be a twist on Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’ – and the lyrics seem to mirror Marilyn’s own search for identity. Some of Halsey’s past style choices have also prompted comparisons to MM (see here.)
“I’m the only girl alive in L.A. County
I’m the only one who sees
I wake up every day in some new kind of suffering
I’ve never known a day of peace
I wonder if I ever left behind my body
Do you think they’d laugh at how I died?
Or take a photo of my family in the lobby?
The ceremony’s small in size
‘Cause I don’t know if I could sell out my own funeral
At least, not at this point in timeAnd if I ever try to leave behind my body
Well, at least I know it was never mine, it was never mine
It was never mine
It was never mineWell, I’m the only girl alive in New York City
I left my wallet on the train
Since I no longer even have a driver’s license
I guess that means I have no name
And I could run away to somewhere on the West Coast
And finally be a real life girl
They’ll take my organs and they’ll hang me from a bed post
Saying I was too soft for this world
And they’d be right because, quite frankly, to be alive, it shouldn’t kill me every day
The way it does
I don’t know what I did to have this this fate
I’m drenched in it
And I can’t even run from what I knowMy special talent isn’t writing, it’s not singing
It’s feeling everything that everyone alive feels every day
Feels every day
Feels every day
Feels every dayI think I’m special ’cause I cut myself wide open
As if it’s honourable to bleed
But I’m not lucky and I know I wasn’t chosen
The world keeps spinning without me
I told my mother I would die by twenty-seven
And in a way, I sorta didThis thing I love has grown demanding and obsessive
And it wants more than I can give, than I can give
Than I can give
Than I can giveWell, I’m the only girl alive in L.A. County
I’ve never known a day of peace
I wake up every day and wish that I was different
I look around and it’s just meIt’s just me, it’s just me
I’m the only one, the only one is me”
The Marilyn Report 