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Watch Halsey’s Epic Performance of “Ego” at the 2024 VMAs

Singer, songwriter, poet, painter, beauty founder and all-around Libra legend Halsey just made her epic return to the VMAs stage with a performance of “Ego” from their upcoming album, The Great ImitatorThe multi-hyphenate rocked fire engine red locks with a casual white top and jorts.

2024 mtv video music awards show

Manny Carabel//Getty Images

2024 mtv video music awards show

Mike Coppola//Getty Images

Watch the full performance here:

A reminder that Halsey last took home a Moon Person for Best K-Pop for their collaboration with BTS in 2019 *and* the Desert hitmaker was also nominated for Artist of the Year. It not only marks Halsey’s return to the VMAs stage since performing “Closer” with The Chainsmokers in 2016, but also her first full-length music project since being diagnosed with lupus and T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder.

“I made this record in the space between life and death. And it feels like I’ve been waiting forever for you to have it. I’m waiting a little longer. I’ve been waiting a decade,” Halsey wrote alongside an Instagram post showing off one of the album’s variant covers.

The About-Face Beauty founder recently opened up about the recording process of their upcoming album while ill. PAPER Magazine“I’ve written a lot better music. One thing I really stopped to do was check myself and say, ‘Dude, you’ve matured a lot! You’ve grown as a writer.’ Going back to writing, it was just so effortless.”

Halsey’s fifth album follows the singer through different eras of pop culture, from the ’70s to the present, and is out October 25.

Explaining their influences on the record, they said: “I kind of grew out of my habits by taking up some space, and that opened up space for more. I also just became a lot more personal about everything. I made songs that sounded like songs that I wanted to hear. I didn’t think about what I was going to perform. I referenced a lot of musicians that I was listening to at the time, because the treatment is two hours long, and you’re sitting there. Everything from PJ Harvey to Portishead to Minnie Ripperton to Massive Attack and Bruce Springsteen.”