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Where it all started
- Eilish first gained attention in 2015, when she uploaded the song 'Ocean Eyes' on SoundCloud. It was written and produced by her brother, Finneas O'Connell. She was not even 14 yet.
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She'd done some recordings earlier
- Growing up in LA, Eilish provided background vocals for films like 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' and 'X-Men.' She was also home-schooled and graduated via a high school equivalency exam at 15.
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From bedroom to boardroom
- After having recorded a song with her brother at home for fun, she was suddenly signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records, but insisted she had to continue working with her brother.
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Billie and Finneas have a special relationship - Eilish describes her brother, who's four years older, as her best friend and producer. "He's the only reason I'm anywhere in the whole world and he's probably the only reason I'm alive," she said.
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Finneas was 17 when he started producing for Billie
- He said of her trust in him: "It was incredibly ambitious, and you thought every idea I had was the best idea, and I couldn't be more proud of every song that I've made with you."
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The sibling you always wanted
- Finneas also spoke about the articles claiming he's not "just" Billie Eilish's brother, and clarified, "Just being Billie Eilish's brother is all I ever wanna be. I love Billie more than anything else and I'm so grateful to you and I love you."
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Her debut EP came out in 2017
- 'Don't Smile at Me' reached the top 15 in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, garnering millions of streams on Spotify long before her studio album came out.
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'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?' (2019)
- Her first studio album debuted atop the Billboard 200 and became the top-performing album of 2019 in the US, also reaching number one in the UK.
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Two-time Guinness World Record holder
- She became the youngest woman to reach the top spot on the UK albums chart, and also set the record for most simultaneous US Hot 100 entries by a woman.
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The album was loaded with unexpected hits
- The album contains six Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles: 'When the Party's Over,' 'Bury a Friend,' 'Wish You Were Gay,' 'Xanny,' 'Everything I Wanted,' and 'Bad Guy' all charted in the Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles. 'Bad Guy' also became her first no. 1 single in the US.
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She had a lot of doubters along the way
- When accepting the award for Variety's Hitmaker of the Year, Eilish explained that someone told her there was no hit on the album, which she followed up with, "that fool was wrong!"
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Making Grammy history
- At just 17 years old, Eilish received six Grammy nominations, becoming the youngest nominee ever to earn nominations in all of the four major categories.
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Eilish's family wins big
- Though Lizzo led with eight nominations, Eilish and Finneas collectively shared 11 nominations, as her brother was her main instrumentalist and produced the whole album.
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Lizzo and Eilish smash records
- The artists made history by completing the "Grammys Grand Slam" together (receiving nods in all four big categories: Record, Album, and Song of the Year, as well as Best New Artist). Two artists have never achieved the feat in the same year. What's more, Eilish went on to win all four awards, making her the youngest Grammy winner ever in all four main categories.
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She's the fourth-most influential fashion star right now - Fashion search engine Lyst's Year in Fashion report looked at data across six million fashion products to determine the 10 stars whose style drove spikes in searches, sales, news coverage, and social media mentions over the year.
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Popularizing a color
- Eilish drove up searches for the color neon green by 69%, this after wearing several neon green outfits and dyeing her hair.
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She has brand power
- She also increased searches for the brand BBCICECREAM by an impressive 211% after she tagged them in an Instagram post.
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Everyone can dress like Eilish
- She collaborated with H&M to release a sustainable fashion collection featuring beanies, hoodies, buckets hats, and more. Of course, offered in neon green.
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She's not making a statement with her clothes - While many have theories about why Eilish wears baggy clothes, she told Elle they're all missing the point. She was, however, shocked when her breasts were written about by several news sources after she dared to greet fans in a tank top. She was still just 17!
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She has Tourette syndrome
- In November 2018, after compilation videos of her tics began to surface online, Eilish confirmed that she has Tourette syndrome, involving only physical tics.
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She has synesthesia
- The reason her music videos are so impactful is because Eilish has synesthesia, a neurosensory condition in which one sense is perceived along with other senses.
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She has synesthesia - She explained, "so everything that I make I'm already thinking of what color it is, and what texture it is, and what day of the week it is, and what number it is, and what shape," adding that her brother Finneas has it too.
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She always wanted to be a star, but she was shy
- Eilish and O'Connell told Apple Music's Beats 1 that the young star was a very shy kid, who would sing into a pillow and got nervous when people asked her to perform something.
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She was raised vegetarian and became vegan
- Eilish often advocates for veganism, once saying to her Instagram followers, "I understand that meat tastes good … and I know you think you're just one person and it won't change anything if you stop but that's ignorant and stupid … Be smarter."
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Her favorite movie
- Eilish has said that her all-time favorite film is 2013's 'Fruitvale Station,' about the real-life shooting of black teenager Oscar Grant by a transit police officer in Oakland, California in 2009.
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She was a Belieber - To announce the Justin Bieber remix of 'Bad Guy' in 2019, Eilish posted a throwback of herself in front of a wall of Justin Bieber posters, of whom she was a big fan when she was 12. "Anything is possible man," she wrote.
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She's a huge fan of 'The Office'
- She's such a huge fan, in fact, that she sampled dialogue from a season seven episode in her song 'My Strange Addiction.'
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Her full name is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell - Her parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O'Connell, wanted her first name to be "Eilish," but Baird's father Bill died during her pregnancy so they named their daughter after him. Pirate comes from Finneas' insistence, when he was four years old.
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She was a dancer - Eilish practiced ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, and contemporary dance for several years, but she said she experienced body dysmorphia and hated to see herself in those tiny clothes.
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She was injured at 13 - During one hip-hop class, she ruptured the growth plate in her hip and had to quit dancing. "It sent me down a hole. I went through a whole self-harming phase," she told Rolling Stone.
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A strong love for horses
- Eilish used to work at a stable in exchange for horse riding lessons, and though she stopped because she "couldn't take being the poor girl around the stable," she has continued to ride as a means of improving her mental health, and now she can afford to!
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She never stops surprising
- Just as she refuses the idea of set genres, Eilish continues to blur the lines everyone tries to draw around her. See also: Song meanings everyone gets wrong.
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Billie Eilish is the anti-pop star we were waiting for
The young star is only 19
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At just 17 years old at the time, singer-songwriter Billie Eilish was nominated for six Grammys, named Billboard's Woman of the Year and Variety’s Hitmaker of the Year, accumulated over 45 million followers on Instagram, became a fashion icon, and released her first studio album while also setting two Guinness World Records. Billie Eilish is the first chart-topping artist born in this millennium, and she's never owned a CD. Now the world is wide open for her, and clamoring for more.
Check out this gallery to learn more about the star who has zero interest in playing by the rules.
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