Songfacts®:

• "Lucky" explores Halsey's relationship with fame. She lays bare the challenges of maintaining a public persona while grappling with personal issues such as health struggles, motherhood, and romantic heartbreak. It offers a glimpse into the emotional turmoil that often lies beneath the glamorous exterior of celebrity life.
• The chorus flips Britney Spears' 2000 ode to an unhappy famous actress, "Lucky," into a first-person narrative. The song meant a lot to Halsey as she battled T-cell lymphoma (a type of cancer) and lupus.
  
  "I remember the first time I heard her sing 'Lucky' and it hitting me at such a young age that I had no idea what her life was really like, and that feeling resonates with me so much still," said Halsey. "I found myself singing it when I started treatment and then I knew I had to do it."
  
  Halsey got Spears' blessing to interpolate her song.
  
  "I wrote her the longest, sappiest, stan letter of all time and she was soooo nice," said the singer.
• Halsey has always been unpredictable with her image, switching up hairstyles in different eras of her career.
  
  I shaved my head four times because I wanted to
  And then I did it one more time 'cause I got sick
  
  This parallels a famous episode in 2007 when, amid a public meltdown, Britney Spears shaved her head.
• Halsey wrote "Lucky" with producer Michael Uzowuru (Frank Ocean, SZA, Rosalia). Uzowuru's production gives it a softer, acoustic rendering compared with Spears' bubbly teenage symphony.
• Uzowuru's production interpolates Monica's 1999 hit "Angel of Mine." Consequently, "Angel of Mine" writers Travon Potts and James Everett Lawrence also receive credits, as do Spears' "Lucky" writers Alexander Kronlund, Max Martin, and Rami Yacoub.
• The "Lucky" video is a dive into the lonely world of fame. Directed by Gia Coppola, it's like a twisted fairy tale where a young fan and a pink-haired Halsey are two sides of the same lonely coin. Simon Rex (What I Like About You, National Lampoon's Pledge This!) is her love interest. Rex also played Barry in Kesha's "TiK ToK" video.
• The video pays homage to a couple of Spears' visuals. There are shots of Halsey alone, lost in the spotlight, just like Britney was in "Lucky." In one scene, the New Jersey singer sports a sparkly bodysuit like the one Spears wore in her "Toxic" video.
• Halsey performed "Lucky" for the first time live at the Sziget Festival in Budapest on August 8, 2024.
• "Lucky" was a coping mechanism for Halsey while she was ill. She recalled to Paper magazine lying in bed, attached to a pump and singing along to the lyrics about being a lucky star. "It was facetious," she admitted.
  
  But the song's message resonated with Halsey, inspiring her to create her own version of "Lucky."
  
  "I was in the studio, and was singing it under my breath, and went 'Wait, let's do this. Has anyone done this? This has been done, right? Why hasn't this been done?"
  
  With her team's reassurance that the idea was original, Halsey began writing her own verses and bridge.
  
  "The verses just came to me, and the bridge was the last thing to come," she said. "It was obviously the most revealing part."