Billie Eilish is truly this generation’s voice. Eilish has a unique voice, and approach to music that makes her one of my favorite artists.
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was born on December 18, 2001, in Los Angeles, California. Eilish and her older brother Finneas Braid O’Connell, were homeschooled by their uncle, Braid. Their parents decided to make this decision in order to spend more time with them and let Eilish and Finneas explore their interests. From a young age, Eilish was surrounded by music. Braid taught both of them the basics of songwriting. At the age of six, Eilish learned how to play the ukulele, and at 11 years old she wrote her “first” song. She took scripts, and episode titles from the series The Walking Dead, to compose the song. Eilish has also enjoyed recording background dialogue for films such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the X-Men series, and Ramona and Beezus. Eilish also used to dance but stopped in 2016 due to a plate injury, and instead focused on recording music.
In 2015, Eilish began working on songs with her brother. Finneas had been writing and producing songs for a few years, and even had his own band. With practice songs like “She’s Broken” and “Fingers Crossed”, written by Finneas and later by Eilish, they have been able to start publishing songs. On November 18, 2015, Eilish published her first song “Ocean Eyes”. Originally written for Finneas’s band, he thought it would fit Eilish’s vocals perfectly. The song first appeared on SoundCloud, and received several hundred thousand of listeners in the first two weeks. What attracted me to Eilish is her ability to make music that feels true and meaningful. Her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? had made her a pop icon, which later on had her winning an abundance of awards.
Eilish has won numerous Grammys Awards and has become the youngest person ever to win the “Big Four”: Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year, all in the same year. I like that she is breaking so many records and keeps on giving us new and improved records every album. Besides crushing the music industry, Eilish is passionate about environmental causes, mental health awareness, and animal rights. She also has worked with organizations like Reverb and has spoken out on social issues. This just adds more to like about Eilish. At the age of 11 she was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, and has recently opened up and is happy to talk about it. She is now raising awareness and fighting the shame associated with the condition.
