The just-turned-20 superstar is a successful phenomenon in her own right. The awards come as a confirmation of what we already know: This artist is headed for the stars with comet-like speed.
The headlines won’t stop: Billie Eilish will perform at Coachella in 2022 with some of the most illustrious musicians of today; she has received seven Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year in 2020 for Bad Guy, and Record of the Year for her single, Everything I wantedHappier than Ever (2021) has been a wondrous achievement. The list goes on…
And, of course, she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 2022 for her James Bond movie theme song, No Time to Die. She won the award with her brother, Finneas O’Connell.
Eilish’s success, however, is only a partial reflection of her artistic persona that in turn reveals an infinitely sensitive interior. Even though she has been influenced by commercially accomplished pop musicians such as Justin Bieber and Rihanna, her performances surpass the scope of peers.
Her hauntingly powerful performance of No Time to Die, for example, seems to emerge out of a vision from Hollywood’s Golden Age but infused by a new sensibility. It is as if she invites her audience to peek into her heart and soul, those elements hiding behind her closed eyes and mournful voice.
Eilish grew up in Highland Park, Los Angeles, with her parents Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell. She and her also famous brother, Finneas, were allowed to freely explore their musical and artistic interests and encouraged to adopt art as their second nature.
This explains the ease with which she creates songs of great variety as well as her brother’s brilliant musical composition and producing. Together, they made music in a small bedroom with simple devices. The “how-to” never stopped Eilish – she herself is the fountain through which creativity flows. And she herself is the magnet for her brother’s and her own free-floating talent.
Eilish’s artistically nurtured youth coupled with her exceptional musical mastery, contribute to her growing success. Her first EP, Don’t Smile at Me (2017), featured several of her popular singles, including Ocean Eyes, co-created with Finneas, which jump-started her career when Eilish was just 14 years old.
In 2019, she released her first album, also created in the home studio with her brother, which included the heart-wrenching I Love You, and Lovely (with Khalid) as well as the playful hits, You Should See Me in a Crown and Bad Guy.
Her second album, Happier than Ever, released in 2021, features a blonde Eilish who ponders the pleasures and pains of growing up, preemptively lamenting “things I’m longing for, someday I’ll be bored of, it’s so weird…”
But who is Billie Eilish? Whence all the romantic musings, the mischievous quirkiness, the plain brilliance? Who is the girl who likes to dress in baggy clothes and jungle colors, and who cries black tears? Who carries that newly manifested look of an icy-eyed Marilyn Monroe-type?
Apart from swearing a lot, she is an animal-loving vegetarian who stays away from drugs and alcohol. Beneath the layers of intriguing guises, Eilish is just a vulnerable, transparent girl.