Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( EYE-lish; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her distinctive musical sound and vocal style, she is a prominent figure in 2020s pop culture. Eilish's production style frequently uses harmony lines and vocal layering, an extension of double tracking.
Eilish first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single, "Ocean Eyes", which was written and produced by her brother, Finneas O'Connell. In 2017, she released her debut EP, Don't Smile at Me, which was commercially successful in various countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Her first full-length album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019), debuted atop the US Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart and was one of the year's best-selling albums. Its single "Bad Guy" became the first by an artist born in the 21st century to top the US Billboard Hot 100 and be certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Eilish's second studio album, Happier Than Ever (2021), became her second to debut atop the Billboard 200 and featured three US top-ten singles: "My Future", "Therefore I Am", and "Your Power". She won the Academy Award for Best Original Song twice for co-writing "No Time to Die" from the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021) and "What Was I Made For?" from the fantasy film Barbie (2023). Her critically acclaimed third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft (2024), featured the Billboard Global 200 number-one single "Birds of a Feather", which also became the most-streamed solo song by a female artist on Spotify.
Eilish's accolades include two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, nine American Music Awards, twenty Guinness World Records, eight MTV Video Music Awards, four Brit Awards, and two Golden Globes. She is the second artist and only woman in Grammy history to win all four general field categories—Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist—in a single ceremony, also becoming the youngest winner of both Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Eilish is also the first person born in the 21st century to win both a Grammy Award and an Academy Award, and the youngest two-time winner of the latter. She has a history of political activism, focusing on climate change awareness, women's reproductive rights, and gender equality.
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 18, 2001. She is the daughter of actress and teacher Maggie Baird and actor Patrick O'Connell, both of whom are also musicians and work on Eilish's tours. Eilish is of Irish and Scottish descent. Her middle name, Eilish, was chosen by her parents while watching a documentary about Irish conjoined twins Katie and Eilish Holton and was originally meant to be her first name, while Pirate was to have been her middle name. Her grandfather, William Baird, died during her mother's pregnancy, therefore her parents named her after him. Eilish "absolutely hated" her first name growing up, saying she would have preferred to have been named Violet or something feminine, though she now feels that "there's no other name in the universe that could be my name besides Billie". She grew up in Los Angeles's Highland Park neighborhood. Naturally blonde, Eilish has been dyeing her hair since she was nine years old, starting with a Manic Panic shade of blue. She generally prefers it to be black, which feels most "like [her]".
Eilish and her older brother, Finneas, 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 started playing the ukulele at age six. She performed at talent shows and joined the Los Angeles Children's Chorus at age eight. 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 television series The Walking Dead, from which she took script lines and episode titles. Eilish took some acting auditions, which she disliked, but she enjoyed recording background dialogue for crowd scenes and worked on the films Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Ramona and Beezus, and the X-Men series. Eilish also took dance classes until 2016, when a growth plate injury ended her dance career and she focused on recording music.
2015–2017: Beginnings and early recognition
In 2015, 13-year-old Eilish began working on songs with her brother Finneas, 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 former written by Finneas and the latter by Eilish. "We recorded them and put them out on SoundCloud, just for fun", she recalled.
On November 18, 2015, Eilish released the song "Ocean Eyes". The track was written, mixed, and produced by Finneas, who had originally created it for his band the Slightlys before deciding it would be a better fit for Eilish's vocals. He gave it to Eilish when Fred Diaz, her dance teacher at the Revolution Dance Center, 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. Rukasin felt she could achieve significant success with Finneas's help.
In January 2016, Finneas and his manager arranged a deal in which Apple Music signed Eilish to A&R company Platoon, specializing in packaging emerging artists before they get a major-label contract. Eilish then hired a publicist, who connected her to the luxury fashion brand Chanel, and a stylist, both of whom helped shape her image. On March 24, 2016, a music video for "Ocean Eyes" directed by Megan Thompson premiered on Eilish's official YouTube channel. "Ocean Eyes" and Eilish received praise and promotion from various media outlets and marketers, including radio stations and music supervisors such as Beats 1, KCRW, BBC Radio 1, Zane Lowe, Jason Kramer, Annie Mac, and Chris Douridas. On June 23, 2016, Eilish and Finneas released "Six Feet Under" on SoundCloud as her second single. A homemade music video for the song was released on June 30, 2016. It was directed by Eilish and edited by her mother, Maggie Baird.
In August 2016, Justin Lubliner, who had noticed Eilish's talent in 2015 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 digital download and streaming on November 17 and 18, 2016, respectively. On November 22, 2016, a dance performance music video for "Ocean Eyes" was uploaded to Eilish's YouTube channel.
On January 14, 2017, Eilish released an EP with four remixes by Astronomyy, Blackbear, Goldhouse, and Cautious Clay for "Ocean Eyes", and another EP for "Six Feet Under" featuring remixes by Blu J, Gazzo, Jerry Folk, and Aire Atlantica. After the success of the "Ocean Eyes" remixes, Eilish released "Bellyache" on February 24, 2017. A video for the song was released on March 22, 2017, directed by Miles and AJ. Eilish released "Bored" on March 30, 2017, as part of the soundtrack to the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. A video for "Bored" was released on June 26, 2017. In March of the same year, Apple Music showcased Eilish at the South by Southwest music festival. On June 30, 2017, Eilish released "Watch". Eilish released another single, "Copycat", on July 14, 2017, and announced the release of her debut EP, Don't Smile at Me. Eilish later released "Idontwannabeyouanymore" and "My Boy". On August 11, 2017, Eilish released Don't Smile at Me. The EP was a sleeper hit, reaching number 14 on the US Billboard 200. Eilish embarked on the Don't Smile at Me Tour throughout October 2017 in support of her EP. Eilish released "Bitches Broken Hearts" through SoundCloud on November 10, 2017.