Billie Eilish

AT 17, BILLIE EILISH is already one of the biggest names in music. Even if you haven’t heard the pop prodigy’s songs before—although that seems unlikely, as they’re everywhere, from Top 40 radio stations to hit Netflix shows including 13 Reasons Why—you’ve almost certainly heard of her. The teen’s angsty avant-pop tunes, written with and produced solely by her older brother, Finneas O’Connell, have been streamed billions of times on digital platforms. She has performed on Ellen and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She has toured the world playing sold-out concerts before hordes of screaming young fans. And all before releasing her critically acclaimed, chart-topping debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, back in March. Needless to say, Billie is on fire, and she’s…

BILLIE EILISH was born on December 18, 2001, and given the name Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell. How did she get such a long name? As the story goes, her parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, fell in love with the name Eilish after watching a documentary about conjoined Irish twins Katie and Eilish Holton. If they ever had a daughter, the couple determined, they’d call her Eilish. But those plans changed when Maggie’s father, Bill, passed away while she was pregnant. As a way to honor his memory, they decided to call their little girl Billie instead. As for the Pirate part of her name? That can be credited to her older brother, Finneas O’Connell, who was 4 at the time and insisted on calling his new baby sis…

1. How did Billie get her name? A. Her father’s favorite singer was Billie Holiday. B. Knowing that their daughter would be a musical sensation, her parents named her Billboard and gave her the nickname Billie for short. C. She is named after her maternal grandfather, Bill. D. Her brother, Finneas, chose the name Billie. 2. In which city was Billie born? A. Tokyo B. New York C. Dublin D. Los Angeles 3. What school did Billie attend as a child? A. Garvanza Elementary School B. She was homeschooled. C. Monte Vista Street Elementary School D. St. Ignatius School 4. WITH WHICH GROUP DID BILLIE GET HER EARLY SINGING TRAINING? A. The National Children’s Chorus B. The Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus C. The Los Angeles Children’s Chorus D. The One…

“I LOVE THE EYES ON ME,” Billie Eilish told Elle of the stratospheric fame she’s gained over the past few years. These days, she has the entire world’s eyes on her. And when the teen wunderkind is in peak performance mode delivering electrifying and high-energy live shows, it’s even harder to look away. She may be flaunting her impossibly cool swagger while crooning that she’s going to “run this nothing town” in her confidence-soaked track “You Should See Me in a Crown.” Or lighting up the stage as she pogoes around to “Bad Guy” during her Coachella debut—a performance critics hailed as a “triumph.” Or stripping it down for an ultra-subdued, unplugged version of the emotion-tinged ballad “When the Party’s Over.” It won’t matter, because there’s seemingly no stage, large…

“YOU KIND OF HAVE TO TRY CERTAIN THINGS OUT TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU WANT.” DESPITE what some people may believe, Billie Eilish maintains she didn’t purposely set out to create music that was anti-pop. As she told Elle, dissenting against the archetypal pop narrative was never the intention: “I was just making songs with my brother. Now it’s like a thing: I’m this artist who’s going against the whatever. Where?! I wasn’t saying, ‘[Screw] pop!’ I was just making what I wanted,” she says. That, in a nutshell, has been the goal ever since she and Finneas, now 22, started writing music together all those years ago in their childhood bedrooms. To this day, Billie still only cowrites and produces with her brother. Unlike the typical pop star, she…

1. WHO IS BILLIE’S WRITING PARTNER? A. Khalid B. Finneas O’Connell C. Justin Bieber D. Metro Boomin 2. What is the origin of the song title “Ilomilo”? A. It’s Billie’s favorite indie movie. B. It’s a computer game Billie played as a kid. C. It was the name of Billie’s pet cat growing up. D. It’s a poem she studied in school. 3. Which of the following artists is not one of Billie’s musical influences? A. The Beatles B. Avril Lavigne C. Lady Gaga D. Tyler, the Creator 4. With the release of her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, Billie became which of the following? A. The first artist born in the 2000s to have a number one album in the U.S. B. The…