Billie Eilish recently announced a world tour for her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? At just 17 years old, Eilish is the first artist born in the 21stcentury to have a number-one album in the US and the youngest female artist to top the charts in the UK. Additionally, she broke another record by having 14 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at the same time.
Given her success, it surprised me to learn Eilish stumbled into the spotlight of the music industry unexpectedly. Though Eilish was no stranger to singing and song-writing, her brother, Finneas O’Connell, was known as the more musical sibling of the family. He recruited his younger sister to sing a song he wrote for his band at the time. This song, Ocean Eyes, was uploaded onto SoundCloud in 2016 and quickly gained overnight popularity for the young artist. At just 13 years old, Billie Eilish’s music career had begun.
Since she released her album in March, Bllie Eilish has become a household name. It’s almost impossible to avoid her; I know because I’ve tried. My hesitation towards the singer is simple: she’s scary good.
When I first heard “Bad Guy,” I immediately felt creeped out by the anxiety-inducing beat and the whisper-like tone. I gave the singer another chance when a friend eagerly tried to show me her music video for “When the Party’s Over.” I’m not sure if it was the jet black liquid leaking from the singer’s eyes or the tarantula crawling across her face, but I’ll admit I was crying halfway through the video.
However, my own child-like stubbornness to enjoy Eilish’s music serves as proof its effective. If art is supposed to challenge us and make us feel uncomfortable, then Eilish sure does one heck of a job! Since then, I’ve put on my big-girl pants and have grown to really enjoy listening to the album (but only in fully-lit rooms and not too soon before bedtime, understandably.)
I now appreciate these “scary” elements of Eilish’s sound and overall aesthetic, because it’s what ultimately makes her unique. She is paving her own way in an industry that has certain ideas of what teenage girls should look and sound like. Eilish’s resting dead-pan glare is anything but the adorable teen popstar figure we usually see in the media. She’s even embraced her own style made almost exclusively of baggy clothing she somehow manages to make fashionable.
Eilish is also an advocate for climate change awareness. Her music video “All Good Girls Go To Hell” predicts what the Earth might look like if we don’t take communal action. The video depicts spine-tingling images of consuming fires and wings doused in oil.
In the YouTube video description, Eilish left a note urging fans to voice their concerns for climate change.
“Right now there are millions of people all over the world begging our leaders to pay attention,” the note reads. “Our earth is warming at an unprecedented rate, ice caps are melting, our oceans are rising, our wildlife is being poisoned and our forests are burning.”
Eilish has partnered with Reverb, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating environmentally-friendly live music experiences. In her upcoming world tour, there will be no plastic straws and fans will be encouraged to bring their own water bottles to re-fill at water stations. There will also be a Billie Eilish “Eco-Village” at each show to offer concertgoers more information about climate change and what we can do to make a difference.
Between her powerful debut album and her efforts to spread environmental awareness, I’m looking forward to seeing more of Eilish in the upcoming years.
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