Halsey appears to be throwing shade at her long history on Tumblr after realizing she was not featured in the video for Tumblr’s 19th Anniversary.
“I keep your lights on for years, and this is the thanks I get?” the singer joked on X, which appears to be a playful throwback to her early days on the social media platform.
I keep your lights on for years and this is the thanks I get? https://t.co/eqy18lyavP
— halsey
(@halsey) March 1, 2026
The video for Tumblr’s 19th Anniversary, which was released on February 27th, takes a look at almost 20 years of internet history, including the rise of the internet meme and the large fandom communities. However, many people pointed out that some of the biggest influencers of the 2010s were left out, including the singer herself, who played a large role in the alt-pop movement of the 2010s with the release of her debut album “Badlands” in 2015.
When “Badlands” first came out in 2015, the dark aesthetic, the pastel-colored dystopia look, and the diary-style lyrics were all perfect for the Tumblr aesthetic. “Badlands” exploded across Tumblr with fan art, snippets of poetry, and sets of GIFs all based on the album, which racked up over 1 million posts at the height of its popularity, according to fan archiving sites from the good old days.
Halsey herself was a busy Tumblr user even before she became a household name with her original poetry and music demos.
The anniversary video comes at a time when people are reflecting on Tumblr’s journey. In the past, Tumblr was worth $1.1 billion after it was acquired by Yahoo! in 2013. However, the number of users has been declining considerably since the mid-2010s. According to data from Statista, the number of users has been declining from 400 million blogs in 2013 to less than 200 million users by 2016.
In the last few months, Tumblr has had a mini-resurgence, especially because of the rise of some micro-fandoms and indie music communities. However, for many users, the Tumblr experience that resonates with them is the early-to-mid 2010s, especially because that was the time that musicians such as Halsey, Lana Del Rey, and Marina Diamandis were dominating the musical space.
People’s Response to Halsey’s Post
People responded quite rapidly to the news that Halsey posted, with some people defending Tumblr and its legacy.
“what kept that site running was comedy show gifs, adult content, and maybe Lana Del Rey,” one user wrote, suggesting that many things came together for Tumblr.
“stopped using tumblr in high school. what’s the connection with halsey?” another user asked.
A third user was quite harsh with Halsey, saying, “she wants to be the tumblr queen SOO bad. you’re just not that girl.”
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