Billie Eilish
BY
Graham Sclater
Billie Eilish (full name Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell) was born in California in the USA in 2001. She is the daughter of actors, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell who are also musicians. She was home-schooled. Her mother taught English and her father song-writing, and that certainly helped towards her incredible success.
At the age of 6, she learned to play the ukulele and wrote her first “song” at the age of 11, inspired by the TV series The Walking Dead
In 2015, the 13-year-old, Billie began worked on songs with her brother Finneas, who had been writing songs and producing for several years. The first songs they recorded together were, She's Broken, written by her brother, and she wrote "Fingers Crossed." Both of these were made available on Soundcloud. The songs received several hundred thousand listens in two weeks, and in 2016, Finneas's manager, Danny Rukasin, met Billie and arranged a deal with Apple Music. As part of the deal, at the age of 14, she recorded her debut single Ocean Eyes written by her brother and she was introduced to a publicist who helped her to form her image. The track was released by Darkroom, a division of Interscope Records. This was linked to a music video for single which was premiered on Billie’s YouTube channel and received praise from media outlets and radio stations around the world.
Two years later, in 2017, her EP, Don’t Smile at Me, reached the top 15 in the US, UK, Canada and Australia and consequently her live shows and videos reached a world audience. Her initial success was followed with her full-length CD, When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? This was one of the best-selling albums of 2019 and reached Number One in many territories, and subsequently five singles were released from it, all of which were hits and resulted in her first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
Billie generally writes with her elder brother Finneas O’Connell, who has his own band, the
Slightlys, and produces her music and appears with her in the live shows.
Her accolades are huge: seven Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, a Guinness
World record, Golden Globe and three MTV video awards, two Brit Awards and so many
more. This year she achieved her third Brit award for International Artist of the Year.
In 2020 she wrote the title theme for the James Bond film No Time to Die, with her brother,
and she became the youngest artist to write and perform a James Bond theme song. She
was to become only the second Bond theme song to top the British official charts and the
first Bond theme performed by a female artist to do so. It was also Eilish's first
number-one single when it topped the UK singles chart. Her following four singles also
resulted in hits and the full-length album Happier Than Ever reached the top of the charts
in 25 countries.
She has made a name for herself with her performances at music festivals around the world and this have catapulted her into international success as a recording artist and as a live artist. Her “look” has been copied by young fans around the world who wait anxiously for her next music.
According to the RIAA and Billboard, Billie is the 26th highest certified digital singles
artist and most successful artist of the 2010s.
She still has a lot to give and the world awaits her next project.
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