Billie Eilish
Born: Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell
December 18, 2001
Los Angeles, California, US
Occupation: Singer songwriter
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. 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, three MTV Video Music Awards, and one Brit Award. She is the youngest person and second person ever 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. In 2019, TIME placed her on their inaugural Time 100 NEXT list.
O’Connell was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 18, 2001. She is the daughter of actress and screenwriter Maggie Baird and actor Patrick O’Connell, both of whom are also musicians. Eilish is of Irish and Scottish descent.She was raised in Los Angeles’ Highland Park neighborhood. She was homeschooled and her mother taught her and her elder brother Finneas O’Connell basics of songwriting. Eilish and Finneas had worked together on some music, while Finneas had been writing and producing his own songs and performing with his band. Eilish said Finneas and her mother inspired her to get into music.
Their parents encouraged the siblings to express themselves and explore whatever they wanted, including art classes and acting. Eilish wrote her first “real” song at age 11 for her mother’s songwriting class. The song is about the zombie apocalypse, inspired by the television series The Walking Dead from which she took script lines and episode titles that she added to the song as part of the assignment. Eilish had gone on some acting auditions, which she disliked. However, she enjoyed recording background dialogue for crowd scenes and worked on the films Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Ramona and Beezus, and the X-Men series. She performed at talent shows and joined the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus at age eight.
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. The record and Eilish received praise and promotion from various media outlets and marketers, including radio stations and music supervisors such as Beats 1, KCRW, BBC One, Zane Lowe, Jason Kramer, Annie Mac, and Chris Douridas.[20] Finneas’ manager had reached out to him after he made “Ocean Eyes” to discuss Eilish’s potential. In a deal arranged by Finneas, Apple Music signed Eilish to A&R company Platoon, which helps package artists before they get a major label deal. Eilish then got a publicist, who connected her to the fashion company Chanel, and a stylist, both of whom helped shape her image.
A music video for “Ocean Eyes” was released in March 2016. By August 2016, Eilish had signed to the record label and artist management company The Darkroom, an imprint of Interscope Records. 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”. 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. That year, Eilish also released the single “Six Feet Under”, which premiered on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio show.[“Ocean Eyes” was certified platinum by the RIAA in September 2018 and peaked at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2019.
On January 14, 2017, Eilish released an EP with four remixes of “Ocean Eyes”. Following the success of the “Ocean Eyes” remixes, Eilish released the single “Bellyache” on February 24, 2017, 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. In March, Apple Music also showcased Eilish at the South by Southwest music festival. In June 2017, Eilish released the single “Watch” with a follow-up single, “Copycat” released in July 2017, along with the announcement of her debut extended play, Don’t Smile at Me. 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.The EP transformed Eilish “from pastel pop star to dark pop artist.”
Eilish’s team worked with Spotify, which promoted her on its most popular playlist, “Today’s Top Hits”. The Baffler described Eilish’s sound as fitting into the “streambait” genre consisting of largely “mid-tempo, melancholy pop” influenced by Lana del Rey, whose “singing style, bleakness, and the hip-hop influenced production” shaped the aesthetic. Eilish’s commercial success expanded with her Spotify promotion. In September 2017, Apple Music named Eilish their Up Next artist, which followed with a short documentary, a live session EP and an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s radio station Beats 1. That month, the live EP titled Up Next Session: Billie Eilish was released. In December 2017, Eilish released her collaboration with American rapper Vince Staples titled “&Burn”, for a remix of “Watch” included on the expanded edition of the EP.
2018–present: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?Main article: 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. 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”. 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.”Lovely” was certified platinum in the US. She also released the singles “Bitches Broken Hearts” and “You Should See Me in a Crown”, and the latter was featured on the soundtrack to the video game FIFA 19. In July 2018, Eilish performed at the Mo Pop Festival. In October 2018, Eilish released the single “When the Party’s Over”, and signed a modeling contract with Next Models. She was placed on the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in November of that year, and released the single “Come Out and Play”, written for a holiday-themed Apple commercial.
Personal lifeAs of early 2020, Eilish lives with her parents in Highland Park, northeast Los Angeles.
Eilish has stated that she has Tourette syndrome, synesthesia, and has experienced depression. She was raised vegetarian and regularly advocates veganism on social media
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