Britney Spears slammed Halsey over her new music video, Lucky, which dropped on Friday, claiming she felt “harassed, violated, and bullied” by the songstress’s tribute.
The Baby One More Time hitmaker, 42, initially stated that she was “upset” over the video that saw Halsey, 29, channeling Spears from the early 2000s.
To share her thoughts, Spears jumped to X, formerly known as Twitter, after taking down her Instagram account one day earlier on Thursday.
“For obvious reasons, I’m very upset about the Halsey video,” Britney began. “I feel harassed, violated, and bullied.”
“I didn’t know an artist like her and someone I looked up to and admired would illustrate me in such an ignorant way by tailoring me as a superficial pop star with no heart or concern at all.”
Britney Spears, 42, slammed Halsey over her new music video, Lucky, which dropped on Friday by taking to X – shortly before deleting the post and claiming her phone had been hacked
However, the post was soon deleted, with the star explaining on X that she wasn’t the one who uploaded the statement. “Fake news !!! That was not me on my phone !!! I love Halsey!!!!” she penned, followed by a red rose emoji.
Halsey also quickly responded to the singer’s second post and shared on X: “and I love Britney!!!!”
“I always have and always will. You were the first person who ever made me realize what it means to feel inspired. And you continue to inspire me every day.”
Halsey channeled Spears in the Lucky music video that officially dropped on Friday, with the tune inspired by Britney’s 2000 track of the same name.
“For obvious reasons I’m very upset about the Halsey video,” Britney began. “I feel harassed, violated, and bullied”
In the lyrics, the mother-of-one references her recent health struggles, after revealing her battle with Lupus SLE and also “a rare T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder.”
“I shaved my head four times because I wanted to/ and then I did it one more time cause I got sick/ I thought I changed so much nobody would notice s***, and no one did,” she sang at one point.
“Then I left the doctor’s office full of tears / Became a single mom at my premiere / I told everybody I was fine for a whole damn year, and that’s the biggest lie of my career.”
As news broke that she was sampling Britney’s song, fans dug up an old interview that caused Halsey to be accused of slighting Spears.
She explained in 2017 that she had recently come to regard herself as a CEO after realizing she controlled more of her work than other pop stars.
“At first, it was naivete,” she told Fast Company. “I thought every artist did everything themselves.