Icon of Generation Z: 2019 Is the Year of Billie Eilish

She is breaking record after record, selling half a million tickets for her entire tour in minutes and conquering an entire generation.

Billie Eilish is the biggest pop star right now. Everything you need to know about her, her music and how she became an idol of Generation Z.

Billie Eilish's Records

In March this year, the singer released her debut album. Even before its premiere, the release set a record for downloads on Apple Music. She did not stop there. Billie made it into the Guinness World Records as the youngest singer (17 years old) whose album held the top spot on the British charts for 114 days. She also became the first artist born in the 2000s whose album reached No. 1 on the US charts. 

In October, Billie announced her first world tour, with 42 dates. The singer will tour Europe, North and South America. The show starts only on March 20 of next year, but all tickets (500,000) for her concerts sold out within the first hour of sales. 

Her YouTube channel has more than 21 million subscribers. The singer's music videos rack up hundreds of millions of views, and more than 40 million people follow her on Instagram. Her most popular track, “bad guy,” has nearly 600 million views on YouTube. It also topped the American Billboard Hot 100 chart and the radio airplay charts Pop Songs and Alternative Songs. 

Who She Is 

Her full name is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell. She was born in Los Angeles, and the singer will celebrate her 18th birthday on December 18. 

The singer grew up in a musical family; her parents instilled a love of music in her and her brother Finneas from childhood. Billie listened to a wide range of music, including Avril Lavigne, The Beatles, My Chemical Romance, Tyler, Childish Gambino, Lana del Rey and many others. 

Billie and her brother never went to school; they were homeschooled. When she turned eight, Eilish became part of the Los Angeles Children's Choir. Just three years later she began writing songs herself. She wanted to imitate her older brother, who played in a band. Her first popularity came in 2016 thanks to the single “Ocean Eyes,” which Billie published on SoundCloud. It now has more than 15 million plays there. 

Largely thanks to the lucky breakthrough with “Ocean Eyes,” Billie received an offer to sign with Interscope Records, the label that had already released Lana del Rey, Imagine Dragons and many others. As a result, millions of new listens, attention from global media and more and more new fans came her way. 

In 2017, her first EP, “Don’t Smile at Me,” was released. Eilish was included in the BBC Sound of 2018 list of promising musicians, released collaborations with Vince Staples and Khalid, opened for Florence and the Machine, and festivals began adding her to their lineups.

In addition, her collaboration with Khalid, “Lovely,” became the soundtrack for the series “13 Reasons Why.” 

About Her Music 

At an early age, Billie Eilish was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. Teenagers and adults with this condition may have depression, bipolar disorder, and abuse drugs and alcohol. All of this recurs many times in her songs.

The singer herself describes her music as alternative trap, though she rejects the very idea of genre labels. “I hate the concept of genre and try to avoid any categories in music.” The main themes of her songs are phobias, depression and much more related to mental health. 

For example, her best-known track (“bury a friend”) is written from the perspective of a monster under the bed. The thing is, Billie suffers from sleep paralysis, so she pays a lot of attention to the themes of dreams and nightmares. In this case, the monster under the bed is a collective image of the sources of anxiety, depression and self-doubt. 

The artist clearly struggles with depression, which can be seen in her interviews and performances when compared with earlier ones. The status of being today's leading pop star probably plays a role. She has complained about loneliness due to lack of time for friends and personal life, about fame (calling it “crap”), and about the internet, where alongside fans there are those who harass and hate her. 

Billie Eilish

All these artists, we're damn sad. All the artists I've met are sad as hell.

However, Billie does not like it when her depression and low mood are mentioned: “It's so annoying that you feel like this all the time. And when someone says: ‘Your mood is always terrible, you're always sad, it's annoying.’ And I'm like: ‘Yeah, I know! I have to live inside this person all the time. I know how annoying it is.’” 

What Others Say About Her 

Billie Eilish is often compared to Kurt Cobain in terms of her influence on her generation. This comparison is made not only by fans and ordinary listeners, but also by people who know what they are talking about. For example, the frontman of Foo Fighters and Nirvana's drummer Dave Grohl: 

“I see that what is happening with my daughter now is the same kind of revolution that happened to me at her age. My daughter listens to Billie Eilish and finds herself through her music. She stays connected with them. So when we went to her concert, I saw that the connection between her and her audience is the same as Nirvana had in 1991.”

Recently, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke attended Billie's concert, met the singer and told her that he really likes her. Thom noted that she simply does her own thing and no one tells her what to do. 

Her work has also been praised by Elton John: “Her album is amazing. She has come a long way very fast. She is an incredible artist everyone is talking about. I can't wait to see her live, because something special is happening with her. Talent like this doesn't come along often.” 

Icon of Generation Z 

Billie Eilish is a representative of Generation Z, which is now coming of age, consuming content and setting the agenda. She was born as the internet was becoming mass-market and has spent her whole life with a smartphone in hand. Billie has always known that any slip-up by a celebrity will immediately be discussed by millions of people around the world. 

It is social media that is the main source of Billie's fans. She has always loved mysterious artists and would like to be one herself, but understands that under her current circumstances this is unrealistic. 

So why is Generation Z so enthusiastic about her? Billie tries to avoid genres and not to fit into any of the existing ones, which her audience doesn't need anyway. What matters to them is the unusual sound and lyrics with emotional depth, so they understand what the author is singing about and experience similar feelings and emotions. 

Billie is not afraid to show her true self, which wins over young people. She stands out from the crowd, perhaps because she has never attended school. The singer can calmly talk about her phobias, depression and emotional state, which wins over a huge number of Generation Z members. They understand that they are not alone in this world and that one can live, fight and succeed while carrying all this inner weight. 

Aleksei Simonchuk