I want to start this article by saying that I am not a ~Billie Eilish Stan~. I don’t mind listening to her music, and I know the lyrics to some of her more mainstream songs, but that is about the extent of my involvement. But regardless of how I feel about her, I think it is undeniable that she deserved every award that came her way at the 2020 Grammy Awards. There’s been some controversy regarding her sweep of arguably the 5 biggest awards of the night (Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Album), with many people arguing that Lana Del Rey and Ariana Grande deserved some of those titles over Eilish. I agree that those two ladies put out incredible projects in the past year and both created albums that are definitely Grammy worthy. However, Billie was just as deserving. Norman Fucking Rockwell, thank u, next, and When We Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? could have each snagged Album of the Year.
For the most part, every artist nominated in the major categories deserves the win, but unfortunately the results are reflective of the Academy and the Academy only. From the perspective, I think it’s fully understanding why Billie rounded up the most votes in for so many different awards. Her project released in 2019 was her debut album, and it is hard to think of someone else who put out such a perfected, unique, and all around enjoyable album on their first go. She broke multiple Billboard records upon its release, not to mention at the age of only 17 years old. Also, the entire thing was created by only her and older brother, Finneas (who won Producer of the Year) in their childhood in their Los Angeles home. Not that working in a fancy studio with multiple producers and songwriters is a negative trait, but to produce an album of that caliber within those circumstances is downright remarkable. Finally, it is not up for debate that Billie’s sound is unlike any other. While Ariana and Lana are also incredible, at the end of the day, their sound is simply more predictable than her’s. Billie’s voice, beats, lyrics, and overall concept has redefined pop music and almost fallen into a genre of it’s own. Her Song of the Year, Bad Guy, is unlike any other mainstream pop song, with most people being unable to name another artist to release something similar. I could go on forever, but I think you probably get the point by now.
At the end of the day, the titles could have gone to anyone. But the last thing we should be doing is giving Billie Eilish shit for her clean sweep. Just because other artists released projects that were just as deserving, it does not mean she didn’t. And if you have anything else bad to say about the her regarding her legendary evening at the Grammys, sit back and ask yourself what you were doing with your life at 18 years old.