I remember a few years ago looking forward to the first time I featured an artist born after the year 2000. It has happened a few times in past years. This week will be one of those moments when another very young artist finds the main page of Weekly Music Commentary. Billie Eilish is more than just a young artist. She is a superstar. How does a seventeen-year old become one of the hottest names in music? Hopefully, this post will provide some kind of roadmap. Perhaps! Let’s start at the beginning.
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was born in Los Angeles, CA, December 18, 2001. She was raised in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles by actor parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, who were both deeply into music. Eilish was homeschooled and joined the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus at age eight. She began writing songs at age 11, taking after her elder brother Finneas O’Connell, who was already writing, performing, and producing his own songs with his band.
In an interview that included Billie’s mother Maggie Baird, she explained that the family knew the kids were special, but never dreamed of what has happened. However, the simple family balance was present even as big things were brewing.
In that same family interview, we learned that Finneas and Billie worked together writing the songs that are now major hits. Much of that work occurred in his small bedroom in the family house. Even after Finneas moved out, he came back to the converted home studio in familiar settings to work with his younger sister.
In October 2015, Eilish recorded the song “Ocean Eyes”, initially written by Finneas for his band, and sent it to her dance teacher, who helped choreograph a dance to it. “Ocean Eyes” was released as Eilish’s debut single on SoundCloud in 2016. A music video was released in March 2016, and a video of Eilish performing a dance to the song was released in November 2016. The song was certified platinum by the RIAA and peaked at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2019.
That year, Eilish also released the single “Six Feet Under”. “Ocean Eyes” was re-released worldwide through Darkroom and Interscope Records on November 18, 2016. On January 14, 2017, Eilish released an EP with four remixes of “Ocean Eyes”.
Many of you might be thinking the Billie Eilish story sounds like she struck musical gold overnight. Well, in some ways that might be true. However, what came next was a little more than just lightning in a bottle.
Following the success of the “Ocean Eyes” remixes, Eilish released the single “Bellyache” on February 24, 2017., with a video released in March 2017. Later that March, Eilish released the track “Bored” as part of the soundtrack to the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. 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 EP, Don’t Smile at Me. Each Friday in July, Eilish would add another single to the EP. 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. After the release, Eilish collaborated with American rapper Vince Staples for a remix of “Watch” titled “&Burn”, which was later included on a re-release of the EP. Following the EP’s commercial success, Apple Music named Eilish an Up Next artist in September 2017.
Certain success was now in hand. Interestingly, all of this happened before Billie Eilish turned sixteen. Apparently Finneas and Billie had the formula to make hit music. More was yet to come.
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.
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was released on March 29, 2019. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 as well as on the UK Albums Chart, making Eilish the first artist born in the 2000s to have a number one album in the United States, and the youngest female ever to have a number one album in the United Kingdom. Upon the album’s debut, Eilish broke the record for most simultaneously charting Hot 100 songs by a female artist, with 14, after every song from the album, excluding “Goodbye”, charted on the Hot 100. The fifth single from the album, “Bad Guy”, was released in conjunction with the album, and peaked at number one in the US, ending Lil Nas X’s record-breaking 19 weeks at number one with “Old Town Road”. She is the first artist born in the 2000s and the youngest artist since Lorde (with “Royals”) to have a number-one single.
Since the release of her debut album, Billie Eilish has been everywhere. Her career has not just been a success. It has been phenomenal. That is the best word I could find to describe what has happened – phenomenal. The events marking her career have been unprecedented. Were watching something that we may never see again. Food for thought.
I thought a little more about what has happened, and a possible future for Eilish. Right now she has accomplished everything discussed earlier, before her eighteenth birthday. She has three more years of musical creation and she will then be twenty. Eight more years and then she will be a still very young twenty-five. We may see record-breaking sales numbers with several prime years left for the young artist. We’ll wait and see.
Allow me a moment to think like a parent and grandparent please. My concern is for the physical and emotional health of young Billie Eilish. A successful music career can be incredibly stressful. We all can only hope for our children’s well-being, and I’m sure Eilish’s parents have similar concerns.
Billie Eilish explains a lot about her own concerns in a special Rolling Stone interview:
“[My next album] haunts me,” said Eilish. “There was a period where I was like, ‘Do I even enjoy music?’ It just felt like so much touring. And I don’t mean the shows. The shows are always my favorite part.”
She continued: “But it was just traveling and being alone all the time, on a cold bus in Europe, horrible food, and when you come back, everyone’s kind of moved on from you. This last tour I went on was the first I’ve ever enjoyed. I feel like I have this amazing thing that now I actually see.”
Hopefully the young singer will enjoy the ride more than feel the pressures of success. Then we might see a young balanced artist who will enjoy the long ride in the music industry.