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Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Billie Eilish says ‘I grew up poor with just one pair of shoes and a shirt'
Billie Eilish has revealed that she had an upbringing far from the glamour of showbusiness, with the popstar recalling how she grew up 'poor with one pair of shoes and a shirt'. Over the past seven years, Billie Eilish has emerged as one of the most influential artists of her generation, shaking up pop with her diverse sound and unique style. 'Billie has undeniably altered the course of 21st-century music,' Thomas Smith, editor of Billboard UK tells Mirror of the star, who is currently touring. 'She turned the whole industry on its head, bringing something so fresh and new with her.' As many cultural experts have noted, her music – including three No1 albums to date – defies all classification. 'Billie is not any one genre, but she has this beautiful voice that can sound so current, but also like it's from decades ago, or even the future,' says Nina Nannar, arts editor of ITV News. 'She's not like Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter, or anybody else. She's just distinctly herself, and she just seemed to become one of the biggest artists on the planet effortlessly.' Though still only 23, Billie has made history with a series of record-breaking milestones. For starters, she was the youngest female artist in UK chart history to bag a No1 album with her debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in 2019, when she was just 17. The following year, she became the youngest artist to win all four major Grammy categories in a single night, and then her 2020 song No Time T o Die made her the youngest artist to write and perform a theme for the James Bond franchise. 'It feels crazy to be a part of this in every way,' she said at the time. As if that weren't enough, the song later won her an Oscar, as did What Was I Made For? her track from the 2023 Barbie movie. Addressing topics such as depression, anxiety, body image and climate change, Billie is not afraid to speak out in interviews or in her songs. But, as Nina suggests, 'She doesn't set out to be brutally honest, she just says what's in her head. She arrived at the perfect moment, when a new generation who felt let down by world leaders were looking for alternatives, and truth. And fans were like, 'Oh, she's authentic. We believe her.'' Gennaro Castaldo from the BPI, the UK music organisation that stages the Brits, agrees. 'She knows her own mind and conveys a strong sense of independence, which gives her a bit of an anti-establishment, maverick vibe,' he says. 'She also has a certain vulnerability, and these are qualities that have always resonated with young music fans.' Billie was born in Los Angeles to actor-musician parents, who have always played a big role in her career. But she didn't enjoy the affluent showbiz upbringing many might assume. 'People have a really weird interpretation of how I grew up, and I think it's because I'm a girl, I'm from LA and an artist,' she has said. 'Automatically, people think you're from Beverly Hills or some sh*t. Not at all. I grew up with no money at all, I grew up poor. I had one pair of shoes and a shirt.' She was homeschooled with her older brother Finneas, now 27, and decided she wanted to be a performer after a childhood trip to see Matilda on Broadway. As teenagers, she and Finneas began working on songs together in his small bedroom, where her entire first album was recorded. 'They showed you don't need all the big, glossy production and technical stuff these days,' says Nina. 'But if you do make music in your bedroom, you've got to be damn good – and what Billie and Finneas achieved by themselves is absolutely unbelievable.' Their breakthrough came when Billie's first song Ocean Eyes went viral overnight in 2015, and she and Finneas cemented her position as pop's rising star with follow-up singles including Bury A Friend, You Should See Me I n A Crown and When T he Party's Over, which appeared on her first album. Worlds apart from much of the formulaic music dominating the charts, Billie's unusual vocal approach was obvious from the beginning. 'She can make these super-weird, dark songs, and yet also more commercial Oscar-winning songs,' says Thomas, who has interviewed Billie more times than any other British journalist. 'She just has that huge range.' Her biggest hit to date came with the anthemic Bad Guy, which was the highest-selling single globally in 2019. 'The response to Bad Guy? That changed my life,' she said. During the pandemic, Billie and Finneas made her second album, Happier Than Ever, which was released in July 2021 and hit No1 in 28 countries, with songs including Your Power, My Future and Oxytocin. Hot on its heels, she scored another first in June 2022 as she became the youngest person to headline Glastonbury, wowing 100,000 at the Pyramid Stage. 'Her set was absolutely unbelievable,' recalls Nina. 'She seemed so relaxed, and to be so comfortable headlining the biggest music festival on Earth aged just 20 really does take a special kind of person.' As usual, Billie's outfit for her moment of Glasto glory was a talking point, with her signature oversized streetwear and trainers matching the rebellious mood. But while she has been dubbed a 'misfit' and an 'outsider' in the past, her unconventional aesthetic is all part of her appeal. 'I'm lucky enough to be in a generation that's able to break every rule,' she has said. 'When I think about artists who grew up in a time where you could only have one genre and one look, and couldn't change that ever… That must have been torturous.' Always pushing limits, her third album Hit Me Hard A nd Soft also broke new ground, smashing sales records with the biggest opening week of 2024 in the UK. Its second single Birds Of A Feather was the world's most streamed song on Spotify last year too, even beating Sabrina Carpenter's megahit Espresso. Showing a new maturity, the album offered bold statements about her sexuality, which has always been the subject of speculation. 'She's found the confidence to talk about it, but has also made it clear she won't be pigeonholed,' adds Thomas. 'She just wants to be who she is, and to like whoever she likes – whether that's men, women or both.'
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Billie Eilish talks real reason for her eye-wateringly pricey tour merchandise
She's not behind the door about a cause she feels passionate about - and a guiding theme in Billie Eilish's career has been climate change - and it features on her UK tour Over the years, Billie Eilish has used her growing reach to speak out on issues she feels strongly about, with climate change and sustainability top of the list. 'She was basically the first major popstar to show us what Gen Z think, and how they see the world,' says Thomas Smith, editor of Billboard UK. 'She's come of age in an era when young people like Greta Thunberg are totally energised to try and do something about the environment. It's not a cynical marketing ploy either; Billie really wants to make a difference.' With the state of the planet so worrying to her, the video to her 2019 song All The Good Girls Go To Hell saw her as a winged creature stuck in an oil spill, surrounded by raging fires. 'The deeper meaning of the song is about global warming and climate strike, and what's really important,' she said at the time. 'This song is about the world and trying to save it, and people not believing that it needs to be saved.' She was propelled into action after countless meetings with music execs highlighted a distinct lack of eco-awareness in the music industry. 'They'd be tripping and stumbling over their words because they're not doing anything,' she said last year. 'And it was kind of alarming to find that no one's really doing anything to better the world.' Doing all she can to make a difference, Billie regularly works alongside REVERB, a non-profit that promotes greener practices in live music. As part of their collaboration, she used solar energy to partially power her headlining set at Chicago's Lollapalooza in 2023. And during her current tour, there are dedicated 'Eco-Action Villages' offering water-filling stations to reduce plastic bottle wastage, while excess food is donated to local shelters. During the upcoming London leg, Billie will also host the latest in a succession of climate summits called Overheated, bringing together activists, musicians and thought leaders. 'She doesn't have to do it, but she does so because it matters to her, and she knows it matters to her fans,' adds Thomas. In addition, Billie regularly partners with plant-based food organisation Support + Feed, which was founded by her mum Maggie in 2020. Both she and Billie are vegan, and the initiative aims to increase food security by encouraging large venues to make plant-based food more accessible and affordable. 'Plant-based food can feed more people, because that's how the food chain works,' Maggie said. 'We're helping the local economy and the planet.' Echoing her mum's sentiments, Billie has said, 'It feels like there really has been change in the crowds, and lots of people taking the pledge and being open-minded to the idea of eating plant-based.' Stressing how Maggie's passion inspires her every day, she added, 'She works so unbelievably hard. She is so selfless, and she cares so much about people and the world in a way that I don't think you could even believe is possible.' Maggie first influenced Billie's environmental efforts as a child, and she once recalled, 'It was such a normal thing. My mom started making these bags in these different types of beautiful fabrics and ribbons, and that's how all of our presents were wrapped for Christmas and my birthday.' While growing up in LA, everything at home was treated as reusable, and the family converted the house to run on solar power and then removed the grass from their front garden to save water. 'Those were big moments for us,' Maggie said. Meanwhile, the release of Billie's album Hit Me Hard And Soft last year was backed by a sustainability plan that saw environmentally-friendly packaging and vinyl copies pressed onto recycled materials. 'I can't just ignore what I know and go about my business and career and not do something,' Billie has said. 'That's just not how I was raised, or how I want to live my life.' Additionally, the merchandise sold on her website aims to reduce climate impacts. 'The problem is to make sure that my clothing is being made well and ethically, and with good materials, and is very sustainable, and that it feels good and is durable,' she has said. Although recognising that this makes it more expensive, she says, 'I'm trying to pick one of two evils.' When she released her Apple TV+ documentary The World's A Little Blurry, its accompanying merch drop was largely created from organic fabrics and made on US soil. 'My hope is that by investing in more high-quality items, they will last for a much longer time, and we can all buy and consume less,' she said at the time. 'This is so important to me and I hope you love it as much as I do.' Billie is also committed to ethical beauty, and her range of fragrances are paraben-free, vegan-certified, cruelty-free and packaged with eco-friendly materials, which has earned her recognition from PETA. Her personal mission has impacted on big brands too, and in 2022 Billie partnered with Nike to redesign its Air Force 1 shoes using vegan and recycled materials. In October 2023, she appeared in a Gucci campaign which saw its classic 1955 Horsebit bag remade with a vegan alternative to leather called Demetra – a first for the brand. Billie has often made a striking statement at glitzy showbiz events too, and at the Met Gala in 2021, she only agreed to wear a gown by Oscar de la Renta after the label agreed to stop using fur in future. 'That was one of the most powerful things she's ever done,' says Nina Nannar, arts editor of ITV News. 'She obviously feels she has a bit of a responsibility, and uses her position in the public eye to try and slowly change the world. She's from a generation who'll march on the streets or say, 'We don't agree with this,' and in this case, it really worked.' Speaking of the effect her Met Gala stance had, Billie said, 'So I got Oscar de la Renta to stop using fur completely, and that was a really, really big thing for me. I hope that more brands follow along with being environmentally conscious and try to help the world instead of making it worse.' Billie has also campaigned for mental health initiatives, and having been open about regularly seeing a therapist to talk through her feelings, she has said, 'I genuinely believe that everyone, every human on earth, should go to therapy, whether you feel this or that about your life, if you're happy or anything.' As Nina says, 'Many 16 or 17-year-olds are not necessarily going listen to their mum or dad's advice, but if it comes direct from Billie and she urges them to seek help, it makes it OK.'
