Bo Weber
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As one of the youngest and chart-topping artists of the new decade, Billie Eilish has auspiciously engraved her unique discography, heart-wrenching songwriting, and sold-out concerts as the hallmarks of the music and entertainment industries across the world.
From just a single SoundCloud track in 2016 to her historic Coachella performances and a successful world tour, Eilish has forged her own path to become one of the popstar icons of this generation.
Before she leaves us again in awe on her journey towards another million digital streams in 2023, let’s talk about the roots of Billie’s massive success in the music industry in our blog below.
Who Is Billie Eilish?
Famously known as Billie Eilish, Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell is a Grammy award-winning American singer-songwriter who debuted as an alternative, indie, and electropop artist in 2015.
As of 2023, she is still the youngest music artist to have won the Grammy’s Album Of The Year at the age of 18 for her most-streamed and critically-acclaimed album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and for “Bad Guy” as the Song Of The Year back in 2020.
On top of her seven Grammy trophies, she has been globally recognized by award-giving bodies more than 200 times. This includes her six major awards at the American MTV Video Music Awards (2020–2022), three major Brit Awards (2020–2022), and three international Billboard Music Awards (2020–2021).
She also garnered a smashing four iHeartRadio Music Awards as an Alternative Rock artist, four awards from Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice as a favorite breakout artist, two Teen Choice Awards for her record-breaking streaming records, a People’s Choice Award as a female artist, and her concert tour. Billie Eilish’s songs also made a debut in the Golden Globe Awards as well as in the Academy Awards (Oscars) for “No Time to Die” as the Best Original Song in 2022.
You want more? Aside from Billie’s awards and nominations in the field of music, she also received four different whopping titles in the Guinness World Records in 2019. Namely, these are the “Most Spotify streams in a single year by a solo female artist/act” the “Most Simultaneous Song Entries in the US Hot 100 by a solo female music artist/act” the “Youngest Female International Artist at the No.1 spot across UK album streaming charts”, and the “Youngest American female Artist to be nominated in all four general Grammy Award categories in 2022”.
In 2023, she will remain the record holder for being the youngest solo female winner who has received the Best International Artist of the Year in the BRIT Awards. Additionally, she is also the youngest singer-songwriter to win the American film-related music awards with “triple crown” status among other artists.
Related: Billie Eilish’s Net Worth May Surprise You
When Was Billie Eilish Born?
Born on December 18, 2001, Billie Eilish was raised by her biological parents in a music-loving community in Los Angeles, California. In 2009, she actively participated in the children’s choir, which unconsciously helped her ignite the fire for a deeper relationship with music, improve her singing techniques at an early age, and creatively write songs from just simple poems that she submitted for school.
While taking her first music lessons, Billie explored different genres of music, from the classics to reggae, acoustic, and pop, where she stood out for her robust vocals, distinct singing intonation, and a very unique melancholic tone. During her early teenage years, Eilish was able to create her own vocal style, compose heartfelt inspirational songs, and even edit her own audio projects by just watching online tutorials.
Luckily, her experimental yet playful ventures in arranging her music style were strongly encouraged by her father, who produced different plays in local theaters in Los Angeles. And most especially her brother, Finneas, who was with his own alternative band at that time, The Slightlys, who gave her the basic professional instruction in composing songs, vocal placements, and studio production.
Surprisingly, Billie Eilish’s zodiac sign as a Sagittarius harmonizes with her early journey in the music and entertainment industries. Most of her fans love her for being unconventional, fiery, adventurous, and imaginative in all of her released music without imitating another artist’s voice who came before her.
Since her first smash hit in 2016, “Ocean Eyes,” Billie Elish has recreated her own music sound, style, and composition in not just a single genre for every song that made the final cut for her first two albums. This unorthodox sound clearly magnified her own musical invention, as proven by her crisp and honest lyrics, enveloped in her deep and emotional ballads as a music genius.
The best part of being a Sagittarius? Probably, you may have noticed how she wrote the song and co-directed the music video for “Bad Guy” as a big fan of her anti-pop music project.
No questions asked. This further proved that Billie Eilish’s birthdate shows that she’s the real deal who’s true to her roots as a SAG. That same MV showed everyone how an arachnophobe can overcome her worst nightmare and show acrobatic scenes that haven’t been debuted by anyone else before.
Where Is Billie Eilish From?
Together with her brother Finneas, Billie Eilish was raised in a two-bedroom home owned by her parents in Highland Park. This neighborhood is located in the Northeastern suburbs of Los Angeles, California.
Back in 2010, this community and its nearby areas experienced exponential growth in terms of the economy and career opportunities in the entertainment industry. The increasing rise of talents paved the way for some singer-songwriters who lived in the area to be Eilish’s inspiration for taking her music career seriously.
Some of these famous Highland Park-based music personalities are Beck David Hansen, Diane Keaton, Edward Furlong, Miles Heizer, Emily Wells, Fritz Poock, Jackson Browne, Zack de la Rocha, Ariel Pink, and Skrillex. Most importantly, this included Billie Eilish’s parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, and of course her brother, Finneas.
In an interview with CBS News in 2019, Billie and Finneas highlighted a trivia fact that surprised her fans at the time. This was the story of how their shared bedroom became the birthplace of almost all the songs in Billie Elish’s albums that they collaborated on and co-produced.
The real story behind Billie Eilish’s successful first albums is that both of them literally composed the lyrics, recorded the demos, and edited the first cut of the songs in that same room next to a six-year-old guitar and a 10-year-old piano. Who would have thought that this same album would win the Grammys as Album of the Year in 2020 without the need for highly advanced audio tech?
Related: 20 Fascinating Facts About Billie Eilish
Where Does Billie Eilish Live Now?
After her world tour in 2022, Billie Eilish has decided to move into her 2,100-square-foot ranch house in Glendale, Los Angeles. In her 2023 Variety interview, she anonymously bought the property because it was her dream home after seeing it on a Hollywood real estate listing back in 2019.
According to Dirt.com‘s property records, the estate was once owned by X-Factor 2006’s Winner Leona Lewis in 2013 that also features a separate two-story guesthouse, an equestrian race track, a single-story all-in-one horse apartment, a goat pen, and a paddock.
That’s not all. Billie previously said that breeding horses and equestrian sports are two of her luxury dreams, provided that she can already afford them with her hard-earned money. She also added in that same interview that she approved some major renovations to the main house’s facilities and amenities before she moved in for good, including updates to the kitchen equipment, a larger swimming pool, and more aesthetic bedrooms.
Billie Eliish’s Ethnicity
According to EthniCelebs, Billie Eilish has a mixture of English, Scottish, Irish, and Belgian heritage.
James Bernard O’Connell, Billie’s paternal grandfather, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to native Irish parents. He was the son of Catherine T. O’Connell and William H. O’Connell, who became renowned writers and editors in Middlesex before his death.
Jean Stone, Billie’s paternal grandmother, was born on Staten Island, New York. She was the daughter of Elise Charlotte “Lillie” Seeman and Mead Wilmer Stone, and she became one of the local authors in Richmond for academic books.
William Norton Baird, Billie’s maternal grandfather, was born in Essex, New Jersey. He was the son of Dorothy Grace Norton and Collier Whittemore Baird, who later became a town councilman and a town mayor for Fruita, Colorado.
Edith May Shaw, Billie’s maternal grandmother, was born in Toronto, Canada. She was the daughter of Edith May Wood and Gilbert Henry Shaw, who owned a shop in Hagersville, Canada, before migrating to the United States.
How Tall is Billie Eilish?
During her world tour, many fans became more intrigued by Billie Eilish’s height.
Based on her recent interviews, her height is actually 5′ 4″, which is approximately 1.63m. But based on entertainment news reports, she is just 5’1″ based on her figure in official photos on social media and during press conferences.
This discrepancy in her height might be caused by her loosely-fitted clothes and sneakers that she usually wears during her performances. But avid fans would prefer to stick with the official height (5′ 4″) that she tells everyone in her interviews.
How Much Does Billie Eilish Weigh?
Many fans have actually speculated and debated about her actual weight on social media after being seen publicly and being head-turned on magazine covers. This stirred up some heated arguments on Twitter and in the artist’s official Instagram comments section.
Currently, Billie Eilish weighs about 126 pounds, or approximately 57 kilograms. Her hips and chest are approximately symmetrical with her midsection, which is very much akin to an hourglass and even spiced up by her ever-glowing bright skin complexion and deep blue eyes.
Nonetheless, Billie Eilish carries herself with grace in every performance on stage, regardless of her clothing style. She’s a real enchantress with her atypical wardrobe for every stage performance that superbly matches her 34-27-35-inch flawless body, making her one of the most sought-after and hottest young female entertainment artists right now.
After we checked her recent photos on social media, we can safely say that Eilish has lost a bit of weight after her world tour in 2022. This just means that she is neither too fat nor too thin for her body size, so Billie can wear any XS-sized jeans, pants, or bottom comfortably.
How Did Billie Eilish Become Famous?
Based on the oldest articles that we’ve found online, Billie Eilish’s popularity and road to stardom started when she was just a 14-year-old dreamer. This was the time when she just wanted to show the world how she simply wanted to express herself with lyrics, beats, and tunes during middle school.
In 2016, one of Billie Eilish’s songs, “Ocean Eyes,” was uploaded by her instructor to SoundCloud for a series of dance classes. A few weeks later, this song became an instant viral hit on YouTube after some students uploaded a series of video clips of them dancing.
From Eilish’s lyrical crafts to her sensational voice boosted by the collaborative bond with her brother, she became a global pop star and fashion style icon. To date, Billie Eilish has graced the Met Gala carpet three times with her fashion-forward look, launched her own fragrance collection, and trademarked couture with her iconic green-and-black ombre hairstyle.
As of this writing, Billie Eilish’s TikTok account (@billieeilish), which just started in late 2020, has 48.3 million followers, while her always-trending Instagram profile (@billieeilish) already has 109 million followers. Meanwhile, we have also verified that she still remains in touch with her 7.3 million followers on Twitter (@billieeilish) and 32 million followers on Facebook.
On Spotify, we’ve found that she’s gained half a million listeners since the beginning of the year. Currently, she has 63,952,396 monthly listeners as of August 2023, while her most streamed song of 2023 with more than 73 million streams is “What Was I Made For?” from one of the official soundtracks of Barbie: The Album.
With a total of active 70 videos, Billie Eilish’s YouTube account (@BillieEilish) has now 48.2M subscribers. Upon checking her YT stats, Billie’s most viewed video on the platform is the official music video of “Lovely” (Billie Eilish, Khalid) with 1.8 billion views, five years after it was uploaded, and “Bad Guy” with 1.2 billion views, four years after its release.
Related: Taylor Swift Quotes to Live Your Life By
Billie Eilish’s Sibling
Media publicists and music practitioners can only speak of this woman’s success with her genius sibling collaborator. Billie Eilish’s brother, Finneas O’Connell, had the same level of devotion to songwriting at an early age.
Aside from being a producer and songwriter for her sister’s music portfolio and lead vocalist and guitarist for his own band (The Slightlys), Finneas is also pursuing his acting career together with their mother in the indie films Life Inside Out and Bad Teacher (2011).
He also started as “Alistaire” in the finale season of Glee in 2015 and has other unannounced acting projects for the coming months and years.
Who Is Billie Eilish Dating Now?
SINGLE but MAY NOT be ready to mingle. After her confirmed breakup with Jesse Rutherford in May 2023, Billie Eilish is not currently dating anyone. However, Billie has confirmed that she remained good friends with her ex and his family after being together for more than eight months.
Eilish and Rutherford made their relationship official on November 1, 2022. This was from a series of couple photos on an Instagram post of the former with her caption, “Life is craaaaaaaaaaazy.”
Sadly, Twitter fans threw a large backlash at this couple a few days after the announcement because of their 10-year age difference (Rutherford, 31, and Eilish, 21) and the latter’s alleged anti-LGBTQ+ comments during his on-stage performances and interviews. Billie Eilish was even caught deleting comments on their Instagram photos a few weeks later.
Based on photos that were uploaded by concert-goers that we’ve seen online, the couple was last seen holding hands and singing while keeping a low profile at Coachella in April 2022.
Billie Eilish’s Parents
After Billie Eilish’s big break in the entertainment industry, media outlets and fans have pointed out that the passion for performing arts runs in the veins of the O’Connell family. In fact, their parents have made a stable living in the industry both as genius producers and confident performers.
Maggie Baird, theater/screenplay actress and singer, Billie Eilish’s mother, was known for her major acting role in the 2013 film Life Inside Out as Laura Cushman Shaw. She played the role of a mother who rekindles her love for songwriting as she struggles to provide for her three teenage sons.
Patrick O’Connell, screenplay actor and Eilish’s father was known for his acting roles as a reporter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Iron Man in 2008 and the FX series Baskets in 2016. He also played a minor role as Skip in her wife’s major acting debut in Life Inside Out in 2013 and was a voice actor for Splinter Cell: Double Agent, an action-packed video game, released in 2006.
Billie Eilish’s Tattoos
In 2020, Billie Eilish’s tattoos made their debut in her interview with Vanity Fair with a simple announcement. According to her, this was her last name engraved in an ornate and gothic font on her chest.
She emphasized that she will hide all her tattoos on her iconic baggy shirts and pants at that time.
However, her decision to conceal all her present and future tattoos changed in May 2021, when she teased the tail of her hip-hugging dragon tattoo while wearing skin-colored lingerie for British Vogue‘s magazine cover. Later that year, Eilish gave the press a glimpse of this tattoo on her walk on the red carpet of the 2021 Met Gala.
In September 2021, she added another set of tats that reflected her dreamy and hopeful disposition.
During the premiere of the No Time to Die film, she revealed her magical fairy design inked on her left hand. She also described these as her little guardian angels from the characters of Fairyopolis, a child’s fairytale book that she grew up with.
From Billie Eilish’s Instagram Stories
After the record-breaking success of Billie Eilish’s tour, she then posted a sexy selfie to her Instagram account, revealing the dragon’s head, which she called her “Big Boy,” in May 2023.
@billieeilish’s Instagram post
According to Rolling Stone, she had the right amount of courage to reveal these artworks of her own design to the world after three years.
So in June 2023, the popstar icon flashed the first tattoo she got when she was still a teen. In the Instagram photo, fans were delighted by her rare photo wearing a bikini on Instagram with the goth tattoo bearing her last name.
@annabelzimmer’s Instagram post
What Is Billie Eilish’s No. 1 Song?
Based on the most updated streaming charts that we’ve seen in the Billboard 100, Billie Eilish has had five songs in the official top 10 since her debut in 2016. This includes her all-time number 1 song, “Bad Guy,” which dethroned the 19-week leading hit of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, in 2019.
What Is Billie Eilish’s No. 1 Album?
Billie Eilish’s first two albums spent three weeks, respectively, on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the number one spot. Her “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” debut studio album has spent three weeks in 2019 since its release date. Meanwhile, her second studio album, “Happier Than Ever,” also spent three long weeks in 2021, with the hit single bearing the same title as the album.
How Many Songs Does Billie Eilish Have?
As of July 2023, Billie Eilish already has a total of 33 singles, 25 music videos, two studio albums, one live album from her concert, and 1 video album with her most-streamed songs. Currently, the singer-songwriter holds a four-time record with number-one hits on the Alternative Airplay chart since 1988. Namely, these songs are “Bad Guy,” “Bury a Friend,” “Therefore I Am,” and “Everything I Wanted.”
How Many Records Has Billie Eilish Sold?
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Billie Eilish has sold more than 5.43 million physical albums in the United States and 1 million in the United Kingdom plus a total of 41.5 million singles on all digital music streaming platforms.
Who Are Billie Eilish’s Musical Influences?
In her interview after receiving her first set of Grammy awards, Eilish boasted that she listened to a lot of Justin Bieber while growing up, especially when she started to write her first songs. The odds went all in her favor when she was given a chance to collaborate on a remixed version of “Bad Guy” with Bieber in 2019.
She also highlighted that she was also inspired by the classic songs of The Beatles, Green Day, Avril Lavigne, Rihanna, and Linkin Park in her vocal techniques. Furthermore, she was delighted by the success of Taylor Swift, Hailey Williams of Paramore, Matty Healy of The 1975, Lana del Rey, Nicki Minaj, and Ariana Grande and wanted to make more original music with her own sound.
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