Billie Eilish

California-bred singer/songwriter Billie Eilish creates boundary-crossing anthems for outsiders that fuse dreamy independent electronic textures with shadowy alternative pop. Her candid, inward-looking words, which confront subjects long deemed off-limits, drew a fiercely loyal following beginning with her emergence as a teenager in the closing years of the 2010s. After wrapping a completely sold-out headline tour, she delivered her first full-length project in 2019: the chart-topping, Grammy-winning When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. She strengthened her cultural footprint by recording the title theme for the twenty-fifth James Bond film, No Time to Die, which arrived in 2020. Turning a sharp gaze on her own celebrity while exploring a wider sonic palette, Eilish reclaimed the top of the charts with her second album, 2021’s Happier Than Ever. Further self-reflection surfaced on the track “TV” from the 2022 EP Guitar Songs and on the emotionally charged ballad “What Was I Made For?” written for the Barbie film, which earned both an Oscar and a Grammy. In 2024 she issued her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft.

Raised in Los Angeles, Eilish grew up surrounded by performers and musicians and received her education at home alongside her brother Finneas O’Connell, then performing with the Slightlys. Joining the Los Angeles Children’s Choir at age eight, she cultivated the expressive voice later heard on her earliest singles. After issuing the pop-oriented tracks “Six Feet Under” and “Fingers Crossed,” she broke through with “Ocean Eyes,” a song produced and co-written by Finneas and released through Interscope; the track amassed more than fourteen million streams and inspired remixes by Astronomyy, Blackbear, and Goldhouse. She followed in February 2017 with “Bellyache” and placed “Bored” on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. Later that summer she released the EP don’t smile at me, which included the singles “Copycat” and “watch.”

During 2018 Eilish added a song to the second season of 13 Reasons Why and joined Khalid for the global hit “Lovely.” That same year she released the singles “You Should See Me in a Crown” and “When the Party’s Over,” both later appearing on her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which arrived in March 2019 and merged pop, electronic, and hip-hop elements with a rock edge. The project debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, achieved worldwide commercial success, and ranked among the year’s most acclaimed releases. Its pulsing single “Bad Guy” topped the Hot 100 and received a remix featuring Eilish’s longtime idol Justin Bieber.

While an international tour occupied much of 2020, she issued the standalone single “Everything I Wanted,” a bittersweet meditation on sudden fame, and became the youngest artist ever nominated in the four major Grammy categories—Record and Song of the Year for “Bad Guy,” Album of the Year, and Best New Artist. At the 2020 ceremony she made history by winning all four, becoming only the second person—and the first since 1981—to accomplish the sweep. Shortly afterward she unveiled “No Time to Die,” her theme for the twenty-fifth James Bond film, later earning the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In July 2020 Eilish released the R&B-inflected “My Future,” which reached the Top Ten on the Hot 100. That August her 2019 acoustic set Live at Third Man Records received a wide release for Record Store Day, climbing to number 55 on the Billboard 200 and topping the U.S. Vinyl Albums chart. The single “Therefore I Am” closed the year by topping charts worldwide; both tracks appeared on her sophomore album Happier Than Ever, released in July 2021. The set also contained “Your Power,” an acoustic ballad confronting exploitation, and the trip-hop-tinged dismissal “Lost Cause.” With Finneas once again producing, the album revealed a more mature outlook and incorporated fresh styles ranging from the aptly named “Billie Bossa Nova” to the nineties alternative-rock bite of the title track. Happier Than Ever debuted at number one in the United States, the United Kingdom, and numerous other territories. While touring the record, Eilish introduced the song “TV,” later included on her 2022 EP Guitar Songs.

The introspective ballad “What Was I Made For?” surfaced in July 2023 on the chart-topping soundtrack Barbie: The Album. It earned a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media, and the Oscar for Best Original Song, making the then-22-year-old Eilish the youngest artist in history to claim two Academy Awards.

Following the acclaim surrounding “What Was I Made For?,” Eilish returned to more personal territory for her third solo album, Hit Me Hard and Soft. Released in May 2024, the streamlined project examined the artist’s own growth and featured the platinum singles “Lunch” and the chart-topping “Birds of a Feather.” It reached number two on the Billboard 200 and collected seven Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. Later that year she scored another number one as a featured artist on Charli xcx’s remix “Guess,” and in September she began a worldwide tour. Fans subsequently received a stripped-down edition of Hit Me Hard and Soft containing only Eilish’s isolated vocals, which charted on the lower reaches of the Billboard 200.