The famous pop singer-songwriter Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell, more popularly known by the first two of her names Billie Eilish rather than her full name, has been putting out hit after hit on the Darkroom subsidiary label on Interscope Records. As a teenager, Billie was only 14-years-old she put out Ocean Eyes (The Remixes) on SoundCloud, 15-years-old when she put out Six Feet Under (The Remixes), and Up Next Session: Billie Eilish, and her debut ep, Don’t Smile at Me.
In fact, Billie Eilish still could count herself as a teen star when her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? hit the planet Earth like a triple-platinum comet. This also was a project that not only gave teenagers in her age bracket some anthems to feel connected to but also offered colorful imagery that adults can latch onto as well.
During an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1, the pop star talked about her first album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by saying:
“The album is basically what happens when you fall asleep. For me, in every song in the album, there’s sleep paralysis. There’s night terrors, nightmares, lucid dreams…I’ve always had really, really bad night terrors. I’ve had sleep paralysis five times. All my dreams are lucid, so I control them. I know that I’m dreaming what I’m dreaming, so I don’t even know. Sometimes I’ll have dreams where the thing that was in my dream will happen the next day. It’s so weird. It’s so weird.”
Seven big songs were unleashed from When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? that gained massive success on the Billboard charts:
- “You Should See Me in a Crown” (2× Platinum)
- “When the Party’s Over” (4× Platinum)
- “Bury a Friend” (3× Platinum)
- “Wish You Were Gay” (Platinum)
- “Bad Guy” (6× Platinum)
- “All the Good Girls Go to Hell” (Platinum)
- “Ilomilo” (Gold)
She is the youngest person to win in the four main Grammy categories, having won the awards for best new artist, album of the year, record of the year, and song of the year for Bad Guy. She is also the youngest person to have reached over 1 billion streams on Spotify.
Already more financially wealthy than the average adult, just how old is Billie Eilish and what has her life been like up until this point?
Driving Age
Billie Eilish was born on the day of December 18, 2001, in Los Angeles, making her zodiac sign that of a Sagittarius, known as the symbol of people who are generally independently minded and have the determination to be leaders. If she had entered the world just three days later, she would have been born under the sign of a Capricorn. Her parents are Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell. Billie was homeschooled and her mother acted as her dance teacher. Billie later joined the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus at the age of 8.
As of right now, Billie Eilish is 18-year-old. The significance of turning 18 to Billie is that in the state of California, where she still lives, there are driving regulations in place that prohibit drivers under the age of 18 from being able to drive by themselves between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. In order to do so they need to have had their licenses for 12 months or more or be accompanied by not just a licensed driver, but one who is age 25 or older.
Before Billie even became an 18-year-old, she told the late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that she was looking forward to being able to drive her car after 11 p.m. when she turns 18:
“You have to either have had your license for a whole year or be 18, and I was so busy – I mean, my life was pretty crazy in the last couple years, so I got to it a little bit late, even though it’s something I’ve literally wanted to do my entire life. All I ever wanted to do was drive.”
Billie Eilish’s Birthday
Billie Eilish has made it known publicly in the past how much she is a big fan of the Canadian singer Avril Lavigne. To cap off an already incredible year, Billie invited Avril to attend the “Bad Guy” singer’s 18th birthday and Avril arrived to spread some love stating:
“She invited me to her 18th birthday and it was fun! Her mom made a cake and it was sweet—no pun intended…There was just like a piñata and games, just like a small group of her friends and family. Just like a bunch of fun arcade games and stuff.”
Avril was also made to feel special at Billie Eilish’s 18th birthday party as well. Billie’s brother and music producer Finneas revealed that he too was an Avril fan. Avril reminisced about her own low-key 18th birthday back in the day when she simply played hockey in New York City.
Growing Up as Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish grew up vegetarian, stating:
“I love animals and I just think there’s no point in creating something out of an animal when the animal is already there. Leave animals alone.”
She grew up being a fan of the music of Green Day, The Beatles, Lana Del Rey, and Justin Bieber. Justin Bieber was such an obsession for Eilish, that her parents once thought about taking her into a therapy session for it because they were concerned about her mental health. The American singer has shared that she suffers from Tourette syndrome.
Eilish also revealed that she’s lactose intolerant and as such, her skin doesn’t react well to dairy and it causes a bellyache. Billie feels that people jump to stereotypical conclusions regarding her Los Angeles upbringing:
“People just have a different vision of how I was raised and that’s not correct. They think I’m just a little rich girl from LA,” Eilish told NME.
She explained that Highland Park is “kinda like a little hipster block party … it’s really cute. It’s very homely, very comfortable.”
Living Arrangements
Eilish is from the neighborhood of Highland Park, which is located in the northeast part of Los Angeles, California. She still lives there with her parents in the two-bedroom home she grew up in. This is a neighborhood that Billie has said that her parents moved to when it was still affordable, describing it now as: “Kinda like a little hipster block party … it’s really cute. It’s very homely, very comfortable.”
Living with her parents entails that they sleep in the living room so that Billie has her own room, as well as a second bedroom for recording her music. That designated room is where she and her older brother, Finneas O’Connell, recorded many of her hits, even after having sold millions of records and winning Grammy Awards.
This modest home is where she recorded a James Bond movie theme tune and where she and her brother, Finneas, recorded her number album When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. Don’t assume that this is some massive mansion room filled with enough space to record a 100-piece orchestra.
It is a fairly cramped single room with a piano, a red desk chair, floral curtains, a bed still in it that has multi-colored cushions. It certainly carries old memories, considering that it used to be her brother/producer’s bedroom.
The white and lilac painted walls in her brother’s previous bedroom still have the original scribbles Billie and Finneas made on it when they were choosing song titles for her album. The progress chart they kept scribbled on his is above where they left marks that determine their childhood heights.
The connection that Billie Eilish feels to this private recording space is so strong that even though her record label pushed for her to move her operations to what they considered a real studio, she refused and kept working from home. Her typical recording formula with her brother was to work in spurts, for 45 minutes or all night long, moving in between each other’s bedrooms trading lines back and forth.
Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas told Rolling Stone:
“It’s crazy, most people need to stand and open their diaphragms, but Billie sounds amazing just slumped on the bed.”
In contrast to the studio room, Billie has been much more private about the details of her own bedroom, describing it as having red as the predominant color, and being the place where her pet tarantula dwells.
Not Feeling Safe
The 18-year-old Billie Eilish may love the precious nostalgia that engulfs her by living in the home that she grew up in with his parents as roommates, even as a mega-celebrity. But because of the magnetic attraction that fame generates between stars and their fans, Billie did admit to Rolling Stone that she doesn’t feel all that safe when she is at home. She often wears baggy clothes to disguise herself.
In 2019 Eilish’s family’s home address managed to get leaked out onto the internet. This began a series of random visits from completely uninvited strangers. Three fans popped up in a single day, which included an older gentleman who took the time to travel the two-hour drive all the way from San Diego to Los Angeles.
These uncomfortable occurrences caused Billie Eilish and her family to hire a bodyguard for the purpose of sleeping in their living room to protect them.
Billie stated:
“It was really traumatizing…I completely don’t feel safe in my house anymore, which sucks. I love my house.”
At the super young age of 18, it is almost hard to believe how much Billie Eilish has already accomplished in the music industry. She recently recorded a new single “No Time to Die” that is going to be the theme song for the upcoming James Bond-theme movie. A few of her songs have also appeared in the Netflix hit series 13 Reasons Why. Even though it may seem like she has already done it all, Billie Eilish still has much more life to live, more room to grow, and many more milestones to add to her already impressive pop music resume.
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