Billie Eilish is another name that's been swirling around the media after clearing out the Grammy of a TON of awards. An impressive feat for a couple of reasons; she is not only the first woman to win all of the four main categories, but also the youngest at only 17 when nominated and 18 when awarded. I wish I was even half as productive, let alone talented, at 18 as she is.
While she was nominated for 6 awards, she missed out on only one, with Lizzo taking the Best Pop Solo Performance Award for her catchy, fun to belt out, bop, "Truth Hurts." The awards she did take home were big ones though with Record of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year all set to adorn the walls/shelves of her bedroom in her family home. Her brother Finneas, who writes for her albums, produces her music, and performs on stage with her, also scored the awards for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Not too shabby at all for the unstoppable sister-brother music duo huh?
But, while the Grammy Awards are an amazing acheivement, they're not the only accolades she has under her belt. Eilish has also racked up 2 American Music Awards (for New Artist and Artist in Alternative Rock), 3 MTV Music Awards (Editing, New Artist, and Push Artist), 2019 winner of Billboard's Woman of the Year, she is the first artist born in the 2000's to have a #1 album in the US, set a world record for being the youngest female to ever have a #1 album in the UK, and a broke the record for having the most songs on the Hot100 charts at the same time by a female artist in the US with a total of 14 songs (nearly her whole album, only one song didn't make it on there). It doesn't even stop there! Her album, "When we Sleep, Where do We Go?" debuted at #1 on Billboard200 and the UK Album Charts, she recorded the song "Bored" just for the Netflix Original Series, "13 Reasons Why," listed in Forbed 30 under 30 in 2018, had her own Youtube mini series titled "A Snippet into Billie's Mind," and has been chosen to create the title track for the newest James Bond movie, No Time to Die.
What I love about Eilish is, of course, her music. Her hauntingly beautiful vocals mixed with the grungy, gritty, inventive, and sometimes soothing sound production is just amazing and its easy to see why she's taking the music industry by storm. But what else I personally love is watching this journey she's been on, how she's evolving and starting to come into her fame and settle there, while still kind of being in complete awe of it. She's young and talented and its a lot to take in...2018 she seemed overwhelmed and just over being famous. You can really tell this in an interview I have watched every year, on accident each time really, somehow I wind up there while going down a Youtube whole of suggested videos. Its by Vanity Fair and is called, Billie Eilish: Same Interview ___ year. This year was the third year she's done it and wow, you can tell how much she's changed from year-to-year. She even makes a comment in 2019 that she was so bubbly in the first interview because she wasn't used to doing them and thought she had to be that way. Then her second one she seemed so gloomy and murky, if that makes sense. Many of the answers, while clear and concise, were tinted with shades of sadness. in 2019 Eilish admits that she hated being famous, but that now she's "very grateful for it, its very rare and (I'm) very lucky."Then the 2019 interview is like someone turned on a light for her again, and she's back to being the vibrant person she was in the first interview...only a little more subdued and mature. I'm so excited for her, honestly, coming from a place where I understand how hard it is to get back to being happy again. She even says that the most important thing to her right now "is maintaining my happiness, which I've been experiencing for the first time in many years lately...I want to stay happy."
She is so open about her struggles with things such as depression, anxiety, and Tourettes which I admire and think we need more celebrities who aren't afraid to talk about their struggles with mental health. We need to normalize discussions about these topics and to see someone in the public eye dealing with this in healthy ways while being supported, instead of mocked. To just acknowledge that these feelings and issues exist, at least in part, inside everyone without ignoring it.
Sources:
Cover image courtesy of Nathan DeFiesta on Unsplash
Comments