Billie Eilish won an Oscar! With the 20-year-old artist’s win for No Time To Die, she has become the youngest artist to win a Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Award for the same song in what is called the “triple crown” of film music. As Eilish and brother/song collaborator Finneas O’Connell accepted their Oscars on Sunday night, they were met with an especially funny question about her being an “emo teenager,” because of course that happened.
After the pair accepted the award for Best Original Song, winning over Beyoncé and Lin-Manuel Miranda, they visited the Oscar media room to answer questions about the win. One reporter posed a question where he called Billie Eilish “an emo, sad-looking teenager” when she first came out before saying that it’s “so nice to see” her “laughing and having a good time” these days. When asking her about this change, here’s how Eilish responded:
I mean, I went from 14 to 20. So that’ll do it, you know?
Upon the reporter framing the question, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell were visibly tickled by the observation, with Finneas stepping off to the side to give out a quiet chuckle. Eilish went on to say the following:
Yeah, I was also a very young teenager, you know teenagers. I don’t know, it's just growth and aging I think. I’m super happy. I think that I’m just coming into being aware of what is good around me. When you’re that young, I think it’s harder to understand how big of a deal things are around you and how important things are. I’ll meet people who are younger than me and be like ‘Wow, they have no idea how cool this is.’ I was just a kid and I didn’t know. I’m so thrilled that growing up has taught me to be more aware of the greatness around me.
Check out the moment Billie Eilish was called an “emo” teen via this Entertainment Tonight clip from the Oscars media room:
When Billie Eilish first gained attention for her first hit single “Ocean Eyes,” the artist was 14 years old. Since then, she has grown up in the spotlight as she put out her wildly popular 2019 album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, featuring megahit “bad guy.” The album led her to also receive awards acclaim and took her to the mainstream.
In 2021, Eilish released her second studio album Happier Than Ever and found herself the center of a number of viral moments, such as with more mature hairdos and posing for a high-profile lingerie shoot that received some backlash, which proved that much of the public hasn’t completely caught up with her current age.
As Billie Eilish shared during her interview post-Oscars, the change the world has watched from the singer has a lot to do with her growing up in her formative years as a prominent pop singer. Having one’s “emo phase” usually comes with the territory of being a 12 to 17 year old. Many of us can surely remember how much more comfortable and present we were (or are) in our bodies once we hit our 20s in comparison to those often awkward teen years.
You can learn more about Billie Eilish’s rise to stardom in her teen years through her excellent documentary The World’s A Little Blurry, available to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription. Congrats to her, Finneas and No Time To Die for the Oscar win!
