Billie Eilish has revealed that she had an upbringing far from the glamour of showbusiness, with the popstar recalling how she grew up ‘poor with one pair of shoes and a shirt’.
Over the past seven years, Billie Eilish has emerged as one of the most influential artists of her generation, shaking up pop with her diverse sound and unique style. “Billie has undeniably altered the course of 21st-century music,” Thomas Smith, editor of Billboard UK tells Mirror of the star, who is currently touring. “She turned the whole industry on its head, bringing something so fresh and new with her.”
As many cultural experts have noted, her music – including three No1 albums to date – defies all classification. “Billie is not any one genre, but she has this beautiful voice that can sound so current, but also like it’s from decades ago, or even the future,” says Nina Nannar, arts editor of ITV News. “She’s not like Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter, or anybody else. She’s just distinctly herself, and she just seemed to become one of the biggest artists on the planet effortlessly.”
Though still only 23, Billie has made history with a series of record-breaking milestones. For starters, she was the youngest female artist in UK chart history to bag a No1 album with her debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in 2019, when she was just 17. The following year, she became the youngest artist to win all four major Grammy categories in a single night, and then her 2020 song No Time T o Die made her the youngest artist to write and perform a theme for the James Bond franchise. “It feels crazy to be a part of this in every way,” she said at the time.
As if that weren’t enough, the song later won her an Oscar, as did What Was I Made For? her track from the 2023 Barbie movie.
Addressing topics such as depression, anxiety, body image and climate change, Billie is not afraid to speak out in interviews or in her songs. But, as Nina suggests, “She doesn’t set out to be brutally honest, she just says what’s in her head. She arrived at the perfect moment, when a new generation who felt let down by world leaders were looking for alternatives, and truth. And fans were like, ‘Oh, she’s authentic. We believe her.’”
Gennaro Castaldo from the BPI, the UK music organisation that stages the Brits, agrees. “She knows her own mind and conveys a strong sense of independence, which gives her a bit of an anti-establishment, maverick vibe,” he says. “She also has a certain vulnerability, and these are qualities that have always resonated with young music fans.”
Billie was born in Los Angeles to actor-musician parents, who have always played a big role in her career. But she didn’t enjoy the affluent showbiz upbringing many might assume.
“People have a really weird interpretation of how I grew up, and I think it’s because I’m a girl, I’m from LA and an artist,” she has said. “Automatically, people think you’re from Beverly Hills or some sh*t. Not at all. I grew up with no money at all, I grew up poor. I had one pair of shoes and a shirt.”
She was homeschooled with her older brother Finneas, now 27, and decided she wanted to be a performer after a childhood trip to see Matilda on Broadway.
As teenagers, she and Finneas began working on songs together in his small bedroom, where her entire first album was recorded. “They showed you don’t need all the big, glossy production and technical stuff these days,” says Nina. “But if you do make music in your bedroom, you’ve got to be damn good – and what Billie and Finneas achieved by themselves is absolutely unbelievable.”
Their breakthrough came when Billie’s first song Ocean Eyes went viral overnight in 2015, and she and Finneas cemented her position as pop’s rising star with follow-up singles including Bury A Friend , You Should See Me I n A Crown and When T he Party’s Over , which appeared on her first album.
Worlds apart from much of the formulaic music dominating the charts, Billie’s unusual vocal approach was obvious from the beginning. “She can make these super-weird, dark songs, and yet also more commercial Oscar-winning songs,” says Thomas, who has interviewed Billie more times than any other British journalist. “She just has that huge range.”
Her biggest hit to date came with the anthemic Bad Guy , which was the highest-selling single globally in 2019. “The response to Bad Guy ? That changed my life,” she said.
During the pandemic, Billie and Finneas made her second album, Happier Than Ever , which was released in July 2021 and hit No1 in 28 countries, with songs including Your Power , My Future and Oxytocin . Hot on its heels, she scored another first in June 2022 as she became the youngest person to headline Glastonbury, wowing 100,000 at the Pyramid Stage.
“Her set was absolutely unbelievable,” recalls Nina. “She seemed so relaxed, and to be so comfortable headlining the biggest music festival on Earth aged just 20 really does take a special kind of person.”
As usual, Billie’s outfit for her moment of Glasto glory was a talking point, with her signature oversized streetwear and trainers matching the rebellious mood. But while she has been dubbed a “misfit” and an “outsider” in the past, her unconventional aesthetic is all part of her appeal. “I’m lucky enough to be in a generation that’s able to break every rule,” she has said. “When I think about artists who grew up in a time where you could only have one genre and one look, and couldn’t change that ever… That must have been torturous.”
Always pushing limits, her third album Hit Me Hard A nd Soft also broke new ground, smashing sales records with the biggest opening week of 2024 in the UK. Its second single Birds Of A Feather was the world’s most streamed song on Spotify last year too, even beating Sabrina Carpenter’s megahit Espresso .
Showing a new maturity, the album offered bold statements about her sexuality, which has always been the subject of speculation. “She’s found the confidence to talk about it, but has also made it clear she won’t be pigeonholed,” adds Thomas. “She just wants to be who she is, and to like whoever she likes – whether that’s men, women or both.”
READ MORE: Billie Eilish: The Ultimate ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’ Tour Special – On Sale Now
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