Billie Eilish, dead at 19.

The teen was found dead in her home in Los Angeles. Police suspect suicide, but other details were not given.
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell (/ˈaɪlɪʃ/ EYE-lish;[1] born December 18, 2001) is an American singer and songwriter. She first gained attention in 2015 when she uploaded the song “Ocean Eyes” to SoundCloud, which was subsequently released by the Interscope Records subsidiary Darkroom. The song was written and produced by her brother Finneas O’Connell, with whom she collaborates on music and live shows. Her debut EP, Don’t Smile at Me (2017), became a sleeper hit, reaching the top 15 in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

Eilish’s debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019), debuted atop the US Billboard 200, reached number-one in the UK, and became one of the best-selling albums of 2019. The album’s fifth single “Bad Guy” became her first number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2020, she performed the theme song “No Time to Die” for the James Bond film of the same name, which became her first number-one single in the UK. Her later singles “Everything I Wanted”, “My Future”, and “Therefore I Am” peaked within the top 10 in the US and UK.

Eilish has received several accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, two Guinness World Records, three MTV Video Music Awards, and one Brit Award. She is the youngest person and the second in history to win the four main Grammy categories—Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year—in the same year. In 2019, Time magazine placed her on their inaugural Time 100 Next list. Eilish is the 26th-highest-certified artist of the digital singles era, according to the RIAA.[2]
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was born in Los Angeles, California on December 18, 2001.[3] She is the daughter of teacher,[4] actress, and screenwriter Maggie Baird,[5] and construction worker[6] Patrick O’Connell, who worked part-time as an actor, appearing in films like Iron Man (2008).[7] Both her parents are amateur musicians.[8][9] She is of Irish and Scottish descent.[10] The singer’s middle name, Eilish, was originally meant to be her first name, while Pirate (proposed by her brother Finneas, four years her senior) was to be her middle name.[11] She was conceived via in vitro fertilization.[12] She was brought up in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.[13][14]

While she was homeschooled, her mother taught her and Finneas the basics of songwriting.[15] O’Connell and her brother had worked together on some music, while he had been writing and producing his own songs and performing with his band.[16][17][9] O’Connell said her brother and her mother inspired her to get into music.[18] Their parents encouraged the siblings to express themselves and explore whatever they wanted, including art, dancing, and acting.[8][15] O’Connell 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 that she added to the song as part of the assignment.[19][18] O’Connell had gone on some acting auditions, which she disliked; however, 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.[15] She performed at talent shows and joined the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus at age eight.[17][15]
Eilish possesses a soprano vocal range.[121] Avery Stone of Noisey described her vocals as “ethereal”,[122] and Maura Johnston of Rolling Stone characterized them as “whispery”.[123] Doreen St. Félix of The New Yorker opined that she has a “husky, slurring voice that she can thin out to reedy”.[124] Music critic Robert Christgau wrote that while Eilish is musically and commercially pop, her brand also “reminds us how amorphous [pop] has become”, describing her soprano as “too diminutive for vocal calisthenics”, adding that her “playful version of teen-goth angst” and “electro-saturated debut album” captivated a diverse audience.[125] Her music incorporates pop,[126] dark pop,[127] electropop,[128] emo pop,[129] experimental pop,[130] goth-pop,[131] indie pop[132] and teen pop.[133]

Eilish’s brother, Finneas, collaborates on songwriting and making music.[134][135] Her brother writes for Eilish’s albums, produces her music, and also performs in live shows.[136][134] Eilish and Finneas “like to completely make up things and become characters” and “have songs that are really fictional”.[135] Eilish said a number of the songs also derive from her and Finneas’ experiences.[135] They try to write “really interesting and conversational” lyrics: “We try to say stuff that doesn’t have to be that deep […] but you say something way deeper in a certain way that makes sense, but you haven’t really thought about.”[135] Finneas has stated when he writes songs for his sister, he aims to “write [songs] that I think she’ll relate to and enjoy singing and empathise with the lyrics and make her own”.[137] When he writes with Eilish, he tries “to help her tell whatever story she’s trying to tell, bounce ideas off of her, listen to her ideas”, and use a language that fits her voice telling the story.[137]

Eilish had wanted to direct her own music videos since age 14 but was initially not given the opportunity due to lack of experience.[138] In 2019, she made her directorial debut with the video for her song “Xanny”.[139]

Eilish also took dance classes until 2016, when a growth plate injury put an end to her dancing career and she turned her focus toward recording music.[40][16][17]