- Indie pop singer, songwriter born Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell in 2001, in Los Angeles California.
- Homeschooled her whole life, Eilish joined the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus when she was 8 years old. She began to write songs when she was 11, collaborating with her brother Finneas O’Connell, 4½ years older than Billie.
- She began posting songs on SoundCloud in 2015, only 13 years old and with O’Connell taking the role of producer. Her breakthrough occurred with the third song she posted – Finneas wrote the song Ocean Eyes and Eilish recorded it in October 2015. It was uploaded to SoundCloud in early 2016. It received 14 million online streams, and other artists started to make remixes of the song. By November 2016, Eilish was signed to a record label, and the song was re-released. It made the Hot 100 song chart, reaching #91. The single has been certified platinum, based on the strength on streaming services.
- In 2017, Eilish released her first EP, Don’t Smile At Me, which contained 8 songs written by O’Connell and Eilish co-writing on 6 of them. Ocean Eyes was included on the EP. It became a hit, topping the Alternative Albums chart and peaking at #14 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Later in the year, the EP was re-issued with 3 additional songs. Songs from the EP have been streamed over 1.2 billion times on the various streaming services.
- Eilish contributed the song Bored to the soundtrack to the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, as well as the song Lovely (with R&B artist Khalid) to the second season of the same show. Lovely reached #64 on the Hot 100 – it’s a beautiful song, complete with strings supporting the soulful vocals of Eilish and Khalid.
- In March 2019, Eilish released her first full length studio album, When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. The first single from the album, You Should See Me In A Crown, was released in July 2018. Four other singles have been released so far – Bury A Friend reached #14 on the Hot 100, and Bad Guy finally reached #1, after being stuck at #2 behind Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road for 9 weeks). When the album was released, it debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart – at the age of 17, Eilish became the first artist born in the 21st century to top the album chart, and also the first to top the Hot 100 chart. A week after its release, she had 14 songs on the Hot 100 – more than any female artist ever. It also topped the album charts of 15 other countries. The album is a blend of ethereal pop and electronic music, with a rock edge, featuring Eilish’s angst-ridden vocals.
- Eilish began touring to support her music in 2018 – at 16 years old. She is not at all your typical teenage pop star. She acknowledges the importance of her brother in her success – their songwriting emphasizes teenage angst in the 21st century (though she admits it’s fiction – her middle class life growing up was largely free of trauma). Her brother’s contributions as her music producer have certainly helped her success – the songs are unique and sound great, particularly as they highlight her soprano voice, which sometimes sings and other times growls. Both her parents are on the road with her – her father is a roadie, her mother is her guardian/manager/mother.
- Eilish won all four of the major categories at the 2020 Grammy Awards – Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist. She was the youngest person ever to be nominated for all 4 major categories, and she was the first to win them all since Christopher Cross in 1981. She also won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album, and Finneas won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album (pretty good for an album that was recorded in a bedroom), and Best Producer. Eilish won two more Grammy Awards in 2021, including Record of the Year for Everything I Wanted. We’ll have to watch and see what this talented young artist evolves into – so many childhood stars deal with complicated lives as they age. This talent who turns 20 in late 2021 has taken the world by storm. Watch her video to the song Lovely. It’s my new favorite song!