Billie Eilish is one of the most amazing musical artists I have heard in a long time. I started listening to her back in November and I haven’t stopped listening to her since. She just turned 17 in December (fun fact, she and I have the same birthday, December 18th except I’m two years older and not as talented oops) and has been writing her own music since she was 11 years old. She wrote her first single Ocean Eyes when she was 13 in late 2015 and it was released early in 2016. She had just turned 14. I don’t know about you, but when I was 14 I wasn’t doing anything at all incredible, and definitely not writing my own music. Since 2016, she has released several singles but has yet to drop her-recently announced-debut album (which is dropping March 29th).
If you don’t know of her, before you look her up, listen to her music. Create an image in your mind of what you think she looks like and then look her up. (https://www.instagram.com/wherearetheavocados) Not what you were thinking, huh? Yeah I experienced this too. I love the fact she does the unexpected, it’s definitely refreshing. She dresses the way she does for a reason, and oooof it’s a goodass reason. She dresses that way because, well first of all, that’s how she wants to dress, and secondly, to show that people, especially women, don’t have to dress the way that society (ie the patriarchy) wants them to dress. “If I was a guy and I was wearing these baggy clothes, nobody would bat an eye. There’s people out there saying, ‘Dress like a girl for once! Wear tight clothes you’d be much prettier and your career would be so much better!’ No it wouldn’t. It literally would not.” (From an interview with NME). She tries to dress outside of everyone’s comfort zone. She wants to be judged and to be the center of attention because of her clothes. Other people’s uncomfortable is her comfortable. “I like to be judged. I’m here for it.” (from an interview with Bazaar) Billie does what she wants. She is the badass queen we all deserve. She could step on my face and I honestly wouldn’t even be mad and I would still love her.
Another thing about Billie is her immense wisdom. Ever heard the expression “wise beyond their years”? Yeah, this phrase was coined with people like Billie in mind. If you listen to her music or watch or read any of her interviews, you know she has experienced so much in her young years.
“My boy’s an ugly crier but he’s such a pretty liar/And by that I mean he said he’d change” (from her song my boy)
“You can be any age to feel anything, really. So when someone says, ‘Oh well she’s young she’s never been through anything,’ I’m like, ‘Think again honey, I have.’ That’s it.” (from interview with Bazaar)
You can also tell that she uses her pain and experiences for inspiration for her songs. A lot of her songs are about love and heartbreak (my boy, hostage, Ocean Eyes, Six Feet Under…). Someone her age with this much material on failed love has gone through or at least seen some serious shit. We’ve all been there, we’ve allllll dealt with that and that’s one of the reasons Billie’s music touches so many people, it’s relatable. But, what’s really incredible about her songs is the poetic way she writes them. She takes conventional and cliche emotions but uses an unconventional way of expressing them “Tell the mirror what you know she’s heard before/I don’t want to be you anymore” (from idontwanttobeyouanymore)
Not only is she incredibly talented with music and lyrics, she’s also talented with videography. (I know, this girl is crazy right?!?) One of her most recent video releases, when the party’s over, which was released in late October 2018, is an amazing example of her vision. She received a drawing from a fan that inspired the music video and she immediately knew what she wanted to with it. Billie posted a photo of the drawing that was given to her to Instagram (she even tracked down the artist and tagged them) and she described in the caption what happened when she received the artwork:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpbWrpNl6cN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Her music videos convey intense emotions and are photographically phenomenal. The music video for when the party’s over is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and she has continued to drop new and innovative art since then. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbMwTqkKSps (when the party’s over video) This video also shows her passion for what she does, considering she drank around six glasses of that charcoal and xanthan gum liquid and then literally had the liquid in her eyes.
This girl is incredibly dedicated and loves what she does. And she’s extremely real. If you go on her Instagram, it’s clear that she manages it herself, which is insane considering the fact she has 11.9 million followers. AND she loves to interact with her fans, and she is always incredibly grateful to her fans, more so than other celebs who are grateful, at least in my opinion. “Especially with Instagram, I love my fans. I talk to each and every one of them as much as I can, and I respond to all of their DM’s—or at least I try to—and I comment on and like all their stuff.” (interview with Bazaar) And she constantly talks about her love and passion for what she does.
“But people meet me and then they’ll tell me things that are like, ‘Billie you got me through this,’ and they’ll explain what happened and how I helped and literally, I just got shivers thinking about it, because it’s something that I do because I love it. That’s the only reason I do it, and that can change somebody’s life, which is freaking crazy.” (from interview with Bazaar)
She loves her fans, she loves what she does and that shows clearly through her work and through everything else she does. She is a good role-model for kids these days, that’s for sure. Well, besides the swearing. Keep doing you Billie, and hopefully people will follow your lead. Image sources
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a13040159/billie-eilish-interview/
https://www.nme.com/big-read-billie-eilish-interview-nme-100-2019