Backstage with ‘Pop Sensation’ Billie Eilish
No Lies Radio Music – By Teri Perticone – Sat May 01, 2021
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell born December 18, 2001) is an American singer and songwriter. She first gained media attention in 2016 when she uploaded the song “Ocean Eyes” to SoundCloud, and it was subsequently released by Interscope Records subsidiary Darkroom. The song was written and produced by her brother Finneas, with whom she collaborates on music and live shows. Her debut EP, Don’t Smile at Me (2017), reached the top 15 in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Eilish’s debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019), debuted atop the Billboard 200 and became the best-performing album of 2019 in the US.[2] It also reached number one in the UK. The album contains six Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles: “When the Party’s Over”, “Bury a Friend”, “Wish You Were Gay”, “Xanny”, “Everything I Wanted”,[a] and “Bad Guy”, the last of which became her first number one single in the US.
Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, two Guinness World Records, and three MTV Video Music Awards. She is the youngest person and first woman to win the four main Grammy categories, Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year in the same year.[3][4]
2015–2017: Don’t Smile at Me
In October 2015, Eilish recorded the song “Ocean Eyes”, written and produced by Finneas originally for his band, after her dance teacher asked them to record a song for a dance routine. They released the song on SoundCloud, as they had already done with a couple of songs they wrote.[9][15][14]
A music video for “Ocean Eyes” was released in March 2016.[8] By August 2016, Eilish had signed to the record label and artist management company The Darkroom, an imprint of Interscope Records.[8] Justin Lubliner, who signed Eilish to The Darkroom, developed her rollout as an artist, taking inspiration from the model of hip hop artists such as Travis Scott and Chance the Rapper, not relying on one big single and focusing on creating a “persona and distinct aesthetic”.[8][24] A video of Eilish performing a dance to “Ocean Eyes” was released in November 2016, and the song was re-released worldwide through Darkroom and Interscope.[20][25] That year, Eilish also released the single “Six Feet Under”, which premiered on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio show.[15][26] “Ocean Eyes” was certified platinum by the RIAA in September 2018[27] and peaked at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2019.[28]
Billie Eilish – Ocean Eyes (Official Music Video)
On January 14, 2017, Eilish released an EP with four remixes of “Ocean Eyes”.[29] Following the success of the “Ocean Eyes” remixes, Eilish released the single “Bellyache” on February 24, 2017,[30] with a video released in March 2017. That month, Eilish released the track “Bored” as part of the soundtrack to the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why.[31] In March, Apple Music also showcased Eilish at the South by Southwest music festival.[22][18] In June 2017, Eilish released the single “Watch”[32] with a follow-up single, “Copycat” released in July 2017, along with the announcement of her debut extended play, Don’t Smile at Me.[33] Each Friday in July, another single to the EP was added. These singles included “Idontwannabeyouanymore” and “My Boy”, both of which were certified gold by the RIAA. Don’t Smile at Me was released in August 2017.[34] The EP transformed Eilish “from pastel pop star to dark pop artist.”[8]
Billie Eilish – bad guy
Billie Eilish – all the good girls go to hell
2018–present: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
In February 2018, Eilish embarked on the Where’s My Mind Tour, which concluded in April 2018.[38] For Record Store Day 2018, Eilish released a 7″ vinyl featuring an acoustic version of her song “Party Favor” and an acoustic cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling”.[39] Eilish collaborated with American singer Khalid for the single “Lovely”, which was released in April 2018 and added to the soundtrack for the second season of 13 Reasons Why.[40] “Lovely” was certified platinum in the US.[41] She also released the singles “Bitches Broken Hearts” and “You Should See Me in a Crown”,[42] and the latter was featured on the soundtrack to the video game FIFA 19. In July 2018, Eilish performed at the Mo Pop Festival.[43] In October 2018, Eilish released the single “When the Party’s Over”,[44] and signed a modeling contract with Next Models.[45] She was placed on the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in November of that year,[46][47] and released the single “Come Out and Play”, written for a holiday-themed Apple commercial.[48]
In early January 2019, Eilish’s EP Don’t Smile at Me reached 1 billion streams on Spotify, making her the youngest artist to top 1 billion streams on a project.[8] That month, Eilish released “Bury a Friend” as the third single from her upcoming debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,[49][50] along with “When I Was Older”, a single inspired by the 2018 film Roma, which appeared on the compilation album Music Inspired by the Film Roma.[51][52] “Bury a Friend” peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. In February, Eilish partnered with Youtube for a documentary mini-series titled “A Snippet Into Billie’s Mind”.[22][53] Her fourth single from the album, “Wish You Were Gay”, was released on March 4, 2019,[54] and debuted and peaked at number 31 in the US and was certified platinum by the RIAA.[55]
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was released on March 29, 2019.[56] Spotify launched a “multi-level campaign behind the album”, creating a multi-media playlist and “new product features” that Spotify stated “allow for vertical video content, custom assets, and editorial storylines all with the goal of creating more meaningful and engaging context for [Eilish’s] fans.”[22] In Los Angeles, Spotify set up a “pop-up enhanced album experience”, which included different artwork and a “multi-sensory” experience of each track for fans.[22][8] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 as well as on the UK Albums Chart, making Eilish the first artist born in the 2000s to have a number one album in the United States, and the youngest female ever to have a number one album in the United Kingdom.[57][58] Upon the album’s debut, Eilish broke the record for most simultaneously charting Hot 100 songs by a female artist, with 14, after every song from the album, excluding “Goodbye”, charted on the Hot 100.[59] The fifth single from the album, “Bad Guy”, was released in conjunction with the album. A remix of the song featuring Justin Bieber was released in July 2019.[60][61] In August, Bad Guy peaked at number one in the US, ending Lil Nas X’s record-breaking 19 weeks at number one with “Old Town Road”.[62][63] She is the first artist born in the 2000s and the youngest artist since Lorde (with “Royals”) to have a number-one single.[64]
Eilish began her When We All Fall Asleep Tour at Coachella Festival in April 2019,[65] with the tour concluding on November 17, 2019 in Mexico City. In August 2019, Eilish partnered with Apple Music for Music Lab: Remix Billie Eilish, part of Apple Stores’ Music Lab sessions during which fans deconstruct her song “You Should See Me In A Crown” and learn how to create their own remix on Apple devices and Garageband.[66][67] On September 27, 2019, Eilish announced her Where Do We Go? World Tour via her Instagram page.[68] The tour is set to begin in Miami on March 9, 2020 and conclude in London on July 27, 2020.
On November 7, 2019, Jack White’s Third Man Records announced the label would be releasing an acoustic live album of Eilish’s performance from the record label’s Blue Room, exclusively sold on vinyl at Third Man retail locations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Detroit, Michigan.[69] On November 13, 2019, she released her next single, “Everything I Wanted”.[70] On November 20, 2019, Eilish was nominated for six Grammy Awards including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Bad Guy” as well as Album of the Year and Best New Artist. At the age of 17, she became the youngest artist to be nominated in all four General Field categories.[71] In the same month, Eilish was crowned 2019 Billboard Woman of the Year.[72] On January 14, 2020, Eilish was announced as performer of the title track for the twenty-fifth installment in the James Bond film franchise, No Time to Die,[73] written and produced with her brother, Finneas O’Connell.[74]
Much of the media attention surrounding Eilish has revolved around her style, which consists primarily of baggy, ill-fitting clothing.[106][107][19] In 2017, Eilish stated that she likes dressing out of her comfort zone to feel like she grabs the attention of everyone around her.[108] She tries to be “really different from a lot of people” and dresses opposite to what others wear.[85] Aiming to “look memorable”, Eilish said that she “proved to people that [she’s] more important than they think” and likes being “kind of intimidating, so people will listen up.”[85][109][110] In 2019, she stated: “Over time it’s kind of become a thing, ‘Billie Eilish, the creepy, weird, scary girl.’ And I don’t like that. It’s lame. I just don’t want to stay one thing.”[111] That year, Eilish appeared in a Calvin Klein ad, wherein she mentioned that she dresses in baggy clothes to prevent people from body-shaming her, stating: “Nobody can be like, ‘She’s slim-thick,’ ‘she’s not slim-thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat ass,’ ‘she’s got a fat ass.’ Nobody can say any of that because they don’t know.”[112][113]
According to Kenneth Womack in 2019, Eilish had “staked her claim as the reigning queen of electropop” with her debut album and “been variously called out for being precocious and the poster child for late-adolescent angst. But in truth, she’s nothing of the sort.”[114]
Personal life
As of early 2020, Eilish lives with her parents in Highland Park, northeast Los Angeles.[138]
Eilish has stated that she has Tourette syndrome[139] and synesthesia,[140][141] and has experienced depression.[142] She was raised vegetarian and regularly advocates veganism on social media.[143][144]
Video sources: www.youtube.com & www.vevo.com
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