Billie described how she wanted the video to capture the feeling of “trying to be so close to someone that you can end up suffocating them.”
Music, of course, was an enduring passion. In the early summer Billie had supported Record Store Day, the campaign to promote local record shops, by releasing a limited-edition pink-vinyl single of her ukulele-backed “party favor” along with her cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” In interviews and posts it was clear she had a massive enthusiasm and appetite for both mainstream and under-the-radar artists. When a New Zealand YouTube video gave her $150 to spend in a record-store spree, she was like a kid in a candy store, almost unable to choose because she wanted everything.
In interviews and posts it was clear she had a massive enthusiasm and appetite for both mainstream and under-the-radar artists.
So who better to have their own Beats 1 radio show? And what else would it be called but Groupies Have Feelings Too? Billie explained that the music she played was “what groupies would hear if they were with me 24/7.” Over the summer of 2018, she put out six two-hour episodes. It mixed banter between Billie and Finneas with a totally eclectic mix that would surprise anyone who didn’t know her. It was a total delight from the very beginning when Billie warned that “you gotta think before you speak.”
Finneas responded with an astounded, “When did you ever . . . ?”
The shows were a fabulous opportunity to get to know the O’Connell siblings, as between songs they discussed anything from favorite childhood TV shows to being on tour to Billie thinking Bill and Hillary Clinton were brother and sister. And then there was the music. Of course, she played her favorites like Childish Gambino, Tyler, the Creator, and J. Cole and a whole lot of hip-hop, but there were also tracks from singer-songwriters, the sixties, musical soundtracks, and lesser-known artists, including those who had shared a stage with her, like Reo Cragun and Thutmose.
For an artist ranked among the hottest new talent, the summer meant festivals. Through 2018 Billie played in the open air on many occasions, including performing at Mo Pop in Detroit, Lollapalooza in Chicago, Osheaga in Montreal, and Outside Lands in San Francisco. Now she was sharing the bill with her friends and heroes, and playing to thousands rather than hundreds. It’s often difficult for solo artists to fill the massive festival stages or connect with such huge audiences, but Billie had no such problems. Standing up there, often in her bright neon suits, she seemed to have boundless energy and worked the crowd as if it was an intimate show, getting them involved, dancing, and hyped.
Now she was sharing the bill with her friends and heroes, and playing to thousands rather than hundreds.
The large festival crowds could also be problematic. Billie’s road manager, Brian Marquis, tells how at Lollapalooza Billie was struggling to walk after her performance due to a sprained ankle. She needed to get back to her hotel, so he carried her on his back. With Billie keeping her head down, he said, “I ran a city block to our hotel with kids chasing after us right into the hotel lobby, which was filled with kids from the concert,” he told Pollstar. “I got her to her room and she said, ‘That was fun!’ ”
Injuries
“I do not know why. I am f***ing seventeen and my body is broken,” Billie told the UK Metro newspaper. She might have the voice of an angel and a gift for songwriting, but she sure has suffered for her art. Ever since she has been in the public eye, Billie has been plagued by the kind of injuries usually reserved for sports stars. She might say she doesn’t know why, but pushing her body to the limits on the dance floor as a young girl followed by a relentless schedule of tour dates as a performer might just have something to do with it.
The injury she suffered at her dance class just as “ocean eyes” had started to make waves on SoundCloud wasn’t her first injury, but it was her worst yet. She was just thirteen and dancing with a group of young adults when she tore her hip flexor muscle. It was a growth-plate injury—a reasonably common affliction for active girls between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, when unhardened areas at the end of bones are vulnerable to injury. Billie’s, however, was a particularly bad case where the bone separated from the muscle in her hip.
By the time she had fully recovered, she was taking her live show on the road. It is a physically demanding set, and Billie gives her all at every show. She prides herself on her ability to endure pain, so has played on through every ache and twinge, but it has taken its toll. The first major injury happened because of a stolen beanie after a show at Lollapalooza in 2018. She went wild yelling at everyone and jumping up and down, landed wrong and badly sprained her ankle. For the rest of the tour she was forced to wear an (admittedly cool) Louis Vuitton orthopedic boot.
Audiences have become used to seeing her wearing muscle-support tape, or knee and ankle supports, and playing through pain. In Manchester, England, in February 2019 she jumped around the stage despite the agony of shin splints (later, fans would watch the livestream as she had her bandages cut off). She injured her ankle again falling down stairs before going onstage in LA in July (she went on anyway). Worse was to come when the other ankle went while jumping around at Milano Rocks in Italy in September 2019. Determined to continue the show, she performed sitting down—but the pain eventually became too much and she ran offstage in tears.
To treat her aches and pains, Billie has ongoing acupuncture, massage therapy, stretching exercises, and taping, but it seems the only thing that will stop the injuries is not going crazy onstage—and that isn’t going to happen any time soon.
At Mo Pop, with no introduction, she added a new song to her set list. The crowd already knew it word for word, as “you should see me in a crown” had already been out for ten days. The lyrics came from a different side of Billie than we had seen before. She was assertive and boisterous, with her “I’m gonna run this nothing town” lines giving off a distinctly hip-hop vibe. These were undercut in the final verse by a more familiar Billie-style dark edge and the mentions of blood on the wall, sleeping in a hearse, and the phrase she confessed was her favorite: “I like the way they all scream.”
The song had been premiered on Annie Mac’s show on BBC Radio 1 in the UK, where Billie revealed that the title and the inspiration for the song had come from the BBC drama Sherlock. Finneas and Billie were big fans of the show and were watching the conclusion of the second season, “The Reichenbach Fall,” in which Sherlock Holmes’s evil nemesis, Jim Moriarty, who has a master key to London’s high-security buildings, utters the line: “The man with the key is king—and, honey, you should see me in a crown.” Billie loved the end of the quote and was determined to use it in a song. She clearly hadn’t forgotten her mother’s songwriting lessons and The Walking Dead project!
The track starts with the sound of sharpening knives (performed by Billie’s dad and recorded in the kitchen) and an almost inaudible woozy synth accompanying Billie at her most whispery. It is dark and carries an ominous vibe. However, when the chorus begins, the fuzzy staccato chords and vicious beats set light to the track. As proven when debuted live at Mo Pop, the chorus has a real kick—more than enough to get a crowd moving. Through her intense touring schedule over the previous year, Billie had learned what made a song work live and had emphasized in interviews that she was intent on creating music the audience could immerse themselves in and which she could have fun performing.
It is dark and carries an ominous vibe. However, when the chorus begins, the fuzzy staccato chords and vicious beats set light to the track.
A Vevo LIFT live-performance video of the song was uploaded a few days after the release. Here the theme is luxury and opulence, and Billie sings as she dances around an empty mansion (with Finneas and Andrew in their cute $1,000 Balenciaga sweaters playing in the corner) and climbs on a massive pile of dollar bills. In an oversized white T-shirt and Louis Vuitton shorts that show off the bruises on her knee, Billie stomps, twists, and grooves through the song, really bringing out its energy.
Those who witnes
sed the Mo Pop live debut of the song were also treated to another clip from Sherlock on the stage’s big screen. This time, it was Holmes describing Moriarty: “He’s a spider. A spider at the center of a web. A criminal web with a thousand threads and he knows precisely how each and every single one of them dances.” Spiders were already a thing for Billie—fans had noticed her overuse of spider emojis—but now it had become more serious . . .
A vertical Spotify video for “you should see me in a crown” appeared in August, in which Billie sang while wearing a crown covered in live spiders with other huge spiders, including tarantulas, crawling over her hands and face. So far, so bearable, but those not yet freaked out had another surprise in store. After two minutes, as Billie reaches the chorus, she opens her mouth and a huge tarantula crawls out. This was for real, not faked or CGI—and Billie had to redo the shoot a number of times to get it right. She didn’t seem bothered and confessed to loving doing it. “Who knows what’s wrong with me?” she joked when interrogated over the stunt.
A vertical Spotify video for “you should see me in a crown” appeared in August, in which Billie sang while wearing a crown covered in live spiders.
“You should see me in a crown” soon took its place as a popular part of Billie’s live set. Some in the festival crowds began to wear their own crowns to her stage, and Billie’s team even took to distributing paper crowns to fans. While not reaching the heights of “lovely,” the single made an impression on the charts in the US, Canada, and Europe, broke the Top 20 in Australia and, amazingly, got to Number 3 in the New Zealand charts.
Billie was now reaching out even further, flying out in August to play in South Korea and at the Japanese Summer Sonic festivals in Tokyo and Osaka. Even there she was enthusiastically greeted at the airport by screaming fans, while at the venues there were many in the audience who were able to sing along to every song. She loved the trip to Asia, especially Tokyo and Japan, where she found the designs and colors amazing. She visited the studios of artist Takashi Murakami, whose manga- and anime-influenced art she loved, and was fascinated by the Japanese fashion houses.
From her very first interviews, Billie had made no secret of her love of fashion. She had repeatedly stated her ambition to start her own clothing line, had worn outfits that she had created herself, and had mixed and matched designs from high-fashion designers. Many casual music followers knew her for her brightly colored and baggy clothes as much as for her music. So, it was no surprise to see her arriving at September 2018’s New York Fashion Week in a firefighter-style orange jacket and pants.
From her very first interviews, Billie had made no secret of her love of fashion. She had repeatedly stated her ambition to start her own clothing line, had worn outfits that she had created herself, and had mixed and matched designs from high-fashion designers.
Attending the Calvin Klein Collection show, she took her place in the front row alongside such luminaries as Jake Gyllenhaal, Rami Malek, Odell Beckham Jr, Mia Goth, A$AP Rocky, and her old friend Khalid. Billie was suitably thrilled to be there. “I never would have thought this would ever come at all,” Billie said to fashion site WWD.com. “Since I was young, fashion has been everything in my way of expression. This was an unrealistic thing to happen, and it happened.” Billie’s interest in fashion was now being reciprocated. Since she had such a unique and recognizable style, and fifty million Instagram followers, the fashion industry was interested in her. Billie now officially became a model as top agency Next Models signed her up to promote fashion and beauty products.
Her first daytime-TV performance found Billie in a green pajama-style suit with the name Billie repeated in blue as a pattern paired with bright green high-tops. She was sat on a throne in a glass box while giant spiders were projected around her.
The Wheres My Mind Tour finally ended in Washington, DC, on October 6. Back in California, she would celebrate by performing “you should see me in a crown” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Her first daytime-TV performance found Billie in a green pajama-style suit with the name Billie repeated in blue as a pattern paired with bright green high-tops. She was sat on a throne in a glass box while giant spiders were projected around her. Billie danced and prowled in a performance that would have freaked out many of the watching daytime viewers, but her fans lapped it up.
Billie had already played nearly seventy shows in 2018 and was about to set off on the 1 by 1 Tour—yet another grueling city-by-city trip across the country, which would finish just in time for her seventeenth birthday. It was just as well that she lived for performing and meeting her fans, as there wasn’t time for much else . . .
A rising star at 2016’s Teen Vogue Young Hollywood event in Malibu, California
New York, 2017, Billie putting her heart into every performance
Billie on ukulele at the 2017 SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas
Billie and Chanel—a relationship that is still going strong
Berlin, 2018, Billie takes every opportunity to get close to her supporters.
Billie rocking another festival in New Hampshire
Open and engaging, Billie once again proves the perfect interviewee.
San Francisco, California, 2018, Billie letting loose—despite the medical boot
The Queen of Coachella
United Kingdom, 2019. As ever, Billie doing it her way.
Onstage at the Lowlands Festival, Netherlands, 2019
United Kingdom, 2019, Leeds gets the full Billie festival experience.
Billie and Finneas at the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, Somerset, United Kingdom, in 2019
Los Angeles, 2019, Billie with her iconic slime-green roots
Billie and Finneas perform at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles, California.
At ease backstage at the 2019 Austin City Limits Music Festival in Texas
Winners of the 2019 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Vanguard Award for innovative music
With the Favorite Artist (Alternative Rock) trophy at the 2019 American Music Awards
Taking away the four biggest prizes at the 2020 GRAMMY Awards
Billie in full flow at the 2020 iHeartRadio ALTer EGO show
It’s all about the Burberry at the 2020 Brit Awards in London, England.
Performing the Beatles’s “Yesterday” at the 2020 Academy Awards ceremony
Attending the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California
Miami, Florida, 2020, kicking off the Where Do We Go? World Tour
Chapter Ten
Blohsh
By some estimates Billie’s songs had been streamed a billion times by the time she set off on her new tour in October 2018.
Despite not having had a major hit outside New Zealand, she had built up an incredible fan base. A plethora of Who is this Billie Eilish? articles were now cropping up online, from rock journals to teen mags to national newspapers. The new tour would once again see her playing in bigger venues, but still to only around one thousand people each night. The shows sold out in minutes and Billie could easily have filled much larger concert halls, but her team were sticking to the plan and taking small steps to stardom.
By now, a small, slanted human figure had become associated with Billie. Their name—gender deliberately unspecified—was Blohsh (often spelled Blōhsh, with the macron mark over the “o,” because it’s pronounced “Blow-sh”). Blohsh started life as one of Billie’s doodles, but evolved to serve as her logo, appearing on posters and much of her merchandise. Her growing success had enabled Billie to fulfill her ambition to design her own clothes. The graphic hoodies and neon beanies in her merchandise store all began life in her sketchbook. She would download a white hoodie or a plain beanie and then color it and place the designs just where she felt they should go. Blohsh would appear as a pendant, repeated down the arm of a hoodie, or in rhinestone in the center of a T-shirt—the last a result of a collaboration with LA
streetwear boutique Joyrich.
Blohsh was visible everywhere as the new tour—named the 1 by 1 Tour from a line in the “you should see me in a crown” chorus—zig-zagged its way across America. More than ever, fans assembled early, singing Billie’s songs as they waited in line. Most of them were now decked out in Blohsh clothing or, failing that, in Billie-style camo pants, crops, bucket hats, or beanies. They gave a huge welcome to Finneas, who kicked off the show with a solo acoustic set, and were charged by high-energy rap act Childish Major. The sounds of Paul Anka’s 1950s hit “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” and the theme from the American Horror Story TV show then blasted out, followed by the opening bars of “my boy” as Billie, resplendent in electric-blue hair, bounded on to the stage. Around her spread the illuminated legs of a giant spider, its body at the back of the stage doubling as a huge lighting pod.
The shows stuck to a similar format, with three short sets building up to a final moshing section that culminated with “bellyache.” Each section was punctuated by some choice Billie favorites played on the PA system, including “I Got Me Some Bapes” by Soulja Boy, a Wii Games music compilation (to which Billie charmingly danced and goofed around), and Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem).” Finally, every encore would turn into a raucous sing-along to “ocean eyes” and “COPYCAT.” Throughout the show, Billie kept the energy levels to the maximum with her dancing (fans especially loved the synchronized dance with Finneas) and jumping around the stage. She would chat between songs, interact with the crowd, and sometimes retreat to sit on the giant spider to deliver a ballad.
Billie Eilish, the Unofficial Biography Page 8