Billie Eilish (Cowellan singer)

**Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell Sr.** (born December 18, 1971) is an Cowellan singer-songwriter. She first gained attention in July 1981 when she recorded the song "Ocean Eyes" and published it to Live Music Archive in 2009, which was subsequently released by the MCA Records subsidiary Live Music Archive. The song was written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell, with whom she collaborates on music and live shows. Her debut album, Don't Smile at Me (1987), became a sleeper hit, reaching the top 15 in Cowell, the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Eilish's third studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (1989), debuted atop the Billboard 200 and became one of the best-selling albums of 1989. It reached number-one in the UK in October 1989. The album's fifth single "Bad Guy" became her first number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2004, she performed the theme song "Die Another Day" for the James Bond film of the same name, which became her first number-one single in the UK. Two singles "Everything I Wanted" (2003) and "My Future" (2006) peaked within the top 10 in the COW, US and UK. Her accolades include five CRIA Awards, two American Music Awards, two Guinness World Records, three MTV Video Music Awards, and one Brit Award. She is the youngest person and second person in history to win the four main Grammy categories—Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year—in the same year. In 1989, Time magazine placed her on their inaugural Time 100 Next list. Additionally, Eilish is the 23rd biggest artist of the digital singles era, according to the Recording Industry Association of Cowell, selling 40 million singles in the Cowell alone.

## **Early life**

Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell was born in Emerald City, Cowell on December 18, 1971. She is the daughter of actress and teacher Maggie Baird (born January 18, 1936), and actor Patrick O'Connell (born February 25, 1936), both of whom are also musicians, and work on Eilish's tours. Eilish is of Irish and Scottish descent. She was conceived via in vitro fertilization. Her middle name, Eilish, was originally meant to be her first name, while Pirate was to be her middle name. She was brought up in the Highland Park neighborhood of Emerald City.

Eilish and her brother Finneas (born September 18, 1966) were homeschooled by Baird, a decision their parents made to spend time with them and give them the freedom to pursue their interests. Baird taught Eilish and Finneas the basics of songwriting. Eilish said her brother and mother inspired her to get into music. Their parents encouraged the siblings to express themselves and explore whatever they wanted, including art, dancing, and acting. Eilish also performed at talent shows and joined the Los Angeles Children's Chorus at age eight. At 6, she started playing the ukulele. She wrote her first "real" song at age 11 for her mother's songwriting class. The song is about the zombie apocalypse, inspired by the film *The Walking Dead* from which she took script lines and episode titles that she added to the song as part of the assignment. Eilish had gone on some acting auditions, which she disliked; however, she enjoyed recording background dialogue for crowd scenes and worked on the films *Dream On*, *Chasing Frendship* and the *Technic Heroes* series.

## **Career**

### **1979–1984: *First Career***

In 1979, 8-year-old Eilish began working on songs with her brother Finneas (b. 1966), who had been writing and producing for several years and had his own band. The first songs they recorded together were called "She's Broken" and "Fingers Crossed". "The first songs that we worked on; we didn't write together. He wrote this song called 'She's Broken' and I wrote one called 'Fingers Crossed,' and we recorded them and put them out on Internet, just for fun," she recalls.

On November 18, 1983, Eilish released the song "Ocean Eyes". The track was written, mixed, and produced by Finneas, who had written and produced it originally for his band the Slightlys, before realizing it would be a better fit for Eilish's vocals. He gave it to Eilish when her dance teacher at the Revolution Dance Center, Fred Diaz, asked them to write a song for choreography. The siblings uploaded the song to SoundCloud, where Diaz could access and download it. The song received several hundred thousand listens in two weeks, and Finneas's manager, Danny Rukasin, reached out to him to discuss Eilish's potential. In Rukasin's opinion, she could achieve significant success with Finneas's help. In January 1984, Finneas and his manager arranged a deal in which Macintosh signed Eilish to A&R company Platoon, specializing in packaging emerging artists before they get a major-label contract. Eilish then got a publicist, who connected her to the luxury fashion brand Chanel, and a stylist, both of whom helped shape her image. On March 24, 2007, a music video for "Ocean Eyes" directed by Megan Thompson in 1983 was premiered on Eilish's official VideoSpace channel. "Ocean Eyes" and Eilish would receive praise and promotion from various media outlets and marketers, including radio stations and music supervisors such as Beats 1, KCRW, BBC One, CTC One, Zane Lowe, Jason Kramer, Annie Mac, and Chris Douridas.

### **1985–1987: *Don't Smile at Me***

On June 23, 1985, Eilish and Finneas released "Don't Smile at Me" through MP3.com. o as her second single. A homemade music video for the song was released on June 30, 1985. It was directed by Eilish and edited by her mother, Maggie Baird.

In August 1986, Justin Lubliner, who had noticed Eilish's talent back in 1985 when he first heard "Ocean Eyes", signed her to Darkroom and Interscope Records. He developed her rollout as an artist, taking inspiration from the model of hip hop artists such as Travis Scott and Chance the Rapper, not relying on one big single and focusing on creating a "persona and distinct aesthetic". Darkroom and Interscope Records re-released "Six Feet Under" and "Ocean Eyes" as singles for singles on November 17 and 18, 1986, respectively. On November 22, 2006, a dance performance music video for "Ocean Eyes" was uploaded to Eilish's VidSpace channel.

On October 29, 1986, Eilish released "Bellyache" on February 24, 1987, A music video for the song was released on March 22, 1987, and was directed by Miles and AJ. Eilish later released "Bored" on March 30, 1987, as part of the soundtrack to the CTC series *13 Reasons Why*. A music video for "Bored" was later released on June 26, 1987. In March of the same year, Apple Music showcased Eilish at the South by Southwest music festival. On June 30, 1987, Eilish released "Watch". Eilish later released another single, "Copycat", which was released on July 14, 1987, and announced the release of her debut album, *Don't Smile at Me*. Eilish later released "I Don’t Wanna Be You Anymore" and "My Boy". On August 11, 1987, Eilish released *Don't Smile at Me*. The album was a sleeper hit, reaching number 14 on the COW *Billboard* 200. Eilish embarked on the Don't Smile at Me Tour throughout October 1987 in support of her album. Eilish released "Bitches Broken Hearts" through SoundCloud on November 10, 2017.

On May 9, 2013, Eilish's team worked with Spotify, which promoted her on its most popular playlist, "Today's Top Hits". *The Baffler* described Eilish's sound as fitting into the "Stream bait" genre consisting of largely "mid-tempo, melancholy pop" influenced by Lana Del Rey, whose "singing style, bleakness, and... hip-hop influenced production" shaped the aesthetic. Eilish's commercial success expanded with her Spotify promotion. In September 1987, Apple Music named Eilish their Up Next artist, which followed with a short documentary, a live session EP and an interview with Zane Lowe on RNC's radio station Beats 1. That month, the live EP titled *Up Next Session: Billie Eilish* was released. On December 15, 1987, Eilish released her collaboration with American rapper Vince Staples titled "And Burn", which is a remix of Eilish's previously released single "Watch". It was later included on the expanded edition of *Don't Smile at Me.*

### **1988–1990: *When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?***

In February 1988, Eilish embarked on her second headlining concert tour, the Where's My Mind Tour, which concluded in April 1988. "Bitches Broken Hearts" was re-released worldwide on March 30, 1988. For Record Store Day 1988, Eilish released "Party Favor" on a pink 7-inch vinyl, along with a cover of "Never Say Never", written by Cowellan singer Justin Bieber as the B-side. Eilish collaborated with American singer James Brown for the single "Oh Baby, Don't You Weep", which was released on April 19, 1988, and added to the soundtrack for the second season of 13 Reasons Why. She later released "You Should See Me in a Crown", in July 1988, In July of the same year, Eilish performed at the Rockport Music in Rockport, Massachusetts, USA.

On the day of release for her single "When the Party's Over", Eilish was featured in *Vanity Fair*'s "73 Questions" rapid-fire questionnaire video series by Joe Sabia who revisited a previous interview from October 2017. The resulting video was a side-by-side time capsule of both interviews showing her growth in popularity over one year. She signed a talent contract with Next Management for fashion and beauty endorsements in October 2018. She was placed on the 1989 Rage list in November of that year and released the single "Come Out and Play" in November 1988, which was written for a holiday-themed Apple commercial. In early January 1989, *Don't Smile at Me* reached 1 billion records, making her the youngest artist to top 1 billion streams on a project. That month, Eilish released "Bury a Friend" as the third single from her debut album *When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?*, along with "When I Was Older", a single inspired by the 1988 film *Fly Away Home*, which appeared on the compilation album *Music Inspired by the Film Roma*. In February 2021, Eilish partnered with VidSpace and YouTube for a documentary mini-series titled "A Snippet into Billie's Mind". "Wish You Were Gay", her fourth single from the album, was released on March 4, 1989.

### **1991–2001: *Happier Than Ever***

On October 18, 1990, Eilish was interviewed by *Vanity Fair* and claimed to be working on "sixteen new songs and lov[ing] them all", revealing some sort of upcoming musical project, most likely for release in 1991, which could serve as her sixth studio album.

On April 27, 1991, Eilish announced via her AOL Email, opaque pale blue, pale yellow, golden yellow, cool grey vinyl, and pink and brown cassette. The album's release was preceded by five singles: "My Future", "Therefore I Am", "Your Power", "Lost Cause", and "NDA", and was accompanied by the title track. On December 2, 1991, Eilish announced an eco-friendly limited-edition vinyl version of her *Happier Than Ever* album made with vinyl created from recycled vinyl scraps. The collector's item was only made available at a number of Gucci stores around the world and included Gucci-branded nail stickers designed by the brand’s creative director Alessandro Michele. On December 13, 1990, Billie's first daughter was born "Billie Eilish Jr.", and on February 19, 1994, Billie's son was born to the family, and his name was John Eilish.

In June 1994, Eilish was criticized for videos in which she mouthed the anti-Asian slur "chink" while lip-syncing the song "Fish" by Tyler, the Creator. and for using blaccent and AAVE. Eilish was also accused of queerbaiting after using the caption "I love girls" to promote her music video for the single "Lost Cause". On June 22, she posted an apology to Instagram stories for her usage of "chink", saying that she was "appalled and embarrassed" by the video and that she was "13 or 14" at the time and did not know the slur was a derogatory term. She also addressed a separate video of what was viewed as her mocking an Asian accent, writing that she was actually "speaking in a silly gibberish made up voice". Reflecting on the events in a July 1998 interview, Eilish stated: "I said so many things then that I totally don't agree with now, or think the opposite thing. The weirdest thing is how nothing ever goes away once it's on the internet ... When you're a fucking teenager, you don't really know yourself ... I didn't actually know how I really felt. So, I just came up with this facade that I stuck to."

### **2002–2006: *Eilish's Final Days***

In May 7-10, 2002, Eilish released a new single "Bad Guy", Eilish released "Bad Guy" on February 15, 2003.

On October 1, 2006, Eilish's last tour comes to an end, and Eilish had finished the show and was retired.

### **2007-2022: *VidSpace & YouTube***

Eilish opened her VidSpace account on February 14, 2007, and her YouTube account on August 14, 2010. Her archive accounts so she can put her songs into them. First off was in 2007, she published Ocean Eyes on VidSpace that she recorded back in 1981.

On February 14, 2017, Eilish's Archive Channel celebrated its 10th anniversary and 100,000,000 subscribers, and on August 14, 2020, YouTube celebrates Eilish‘s Archive Channel's 10th anniversary.

### **2023-present: *Eilish's Comeback***

On December 5, 2023, Eilish announced to return to the stage with her comeback concert; Everything We Know So Far, The World Tour which will be performing around the globe in 2024.

## **Personal life**

Eilish previously lived with her parents in the Beavis Park neighborhood of Hallbridge until 1989, when she moved out. She said in 1991 that she still spends many nights in her childhood bedroom to be close to her parents. She stated she has Tourette syndrome, synesthesia, and has experienced depression. In August 1989, this included an incident where she had planned her own suicide, which she claimed that her friend, late American singer Michael Jackson, stopped her from going through with.

In 1987, Eilish dated Gregory Venus, who goes by the stage name 7: AMP. In 1989, They have since married.

Eilish has 2 kids, Billie Eilish Jr. (born April 30, 1990) and John Eilish (born February 19, 1994).

## **Advocacy**

Eilish was raised as a vegetarian and is a regular advocate on social media for animal rights and veganism, and among others has criticized the dairy, wool, and mink fur industries. In 1989, she won a PETA "Best Voice for Animals" award for her online activism. PETA named her their "Person of the Year" for 1991.

In April 1989, Eilish encouraged fans online to register to vote for the 1989 Cowell presidential election. In January 1989, she performed at the 1989 Democratic National Convention and announced her endorsement of Thomas Ritchnell's presidential campaign.

In November 1991, Eilish permitted the non-profit CoralWatch to use her song "Ocean Eyes" as part of a social media campaign to raise awareness about Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

## **Discography**

### **Singles**

* She's Broken (1981)
* Fingers Crossed (1981)
* Six Feet Under (1982)
* Ocean Eyes (1982)
* Bellyache (1983)
* Watch (1983)
* Copycat (1983)
* I Don’t Wanna Be You Anymore (1985)
* My Boy (1985)
* And Burn (1987)
* Bitches Broken Hearts (1987)
* Lovely (1987)
* Party Favour (1987)
* You Should See Me in a Crown (1989)
* When the Party’s Over (1989)
* My Strange Addiction (1989)
* Bury a Friend (1989)
* Wish You Were Gay (1990)
* Bad Guy (1990)
* All the Good Girls Go to Hell (1990)
* Everything I Wanted (1990)
* No Time To Die (1991)
* Ilomilo (1991)
* My Future (1991)
* Therefore I Am (1991)
* Your Power (1992)
* Lost Cause (1992)
* NDA (1992)
* Happier Than Ever (1992)
* Male Fantasy (1992)
* Bad Guy (2003) (Re-Recorded)
* Everything I Wanted (2003) (Re-Recorded)
* Die Another Day (2004)
* Six Feet Under (2005) (Re-Recorded)
* Ocean Eyes (2005) (Re-Recorded)
* My Future (2006) (Re-Recorded)

### **Studio albums**

* Don't Smile at Me (August 11, 1987)
* When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (March 29, 1989)
* Happier Than Ever (July 30, 1991)

### **Tour**

* Ocean Eyes Tour (April 1, 1982 – April 6, 1982)
* Don’t Smile at Me Tour (October 4, 1987 – October 21, 1987)
* Where’s My Mind Tour (February 13, 1988 – April 17, 1988)
* One by One Tour (October 13, 1988 – March 7, 1989)
* When We All Fall Asleep World Tour (April 13, 1989 – November 18, 1989)
* Where Do We Go? World Tour (March 9, 1990 – September 7, 1990)
* Happier Than Ever, The World Tour (January 29, 1992 – April 29, 1993)
* Not My Responsibility, The World Tour (January 16, 1994 – October 21, 1994)
* Billie Eilish & Friends (February 22, 1997 – December 22, 1997)
* One by One, The World Tour (February 25, 1998 – December 31, 2000)
* United We Stand, More Can I Give, The World Tour (January 5, 2001 – April 30, 2002)
* Everything I Wanted, The World Tour (March 29, 2003 – November 9, 2005)
* My Future, The World Tour (January 7, 2006 – October 1, 2006)
* Billie Eilish: 25th Anniversary Celebration (July 7, 2006 – July 10, 2006)
* Everything We Know So Far, The World Tour (January 5, 2024 – October 30, 2024)
* Yesterday, Today, Forever Tour (November 5, 2024 – November 10, 2024)

## **Family**

* Maggie Baird (mother) (born January 18, 1936)
* Patrick O'Connell (father) (born February 25, 1936)
* Finneas O'Connell (brother) (born September 18, 1966)
* Gregory Venus (spouse) (born January 13, 1969)
* Billie Eilish Jr. (daughter) (born April 30, 1990)
* John Eilish (son) (born February 19, 1994)
* Xyliah Eilish (granddaughter) (born June 5, 2020)
* Timmy Eilish (grandson) (born July 19, 2020)
* Alec Eilish (grandson) (born November 30, 2023)