Billie Eilish has been dealing with backlash in recent days. The No Time To Die singer caught flack by dating Matthew Tyler Vorce, an actor and writer who was found to have used anti-lgbtq slurs and more on social media years ago. He has since apologized. Then, people started looking into Eilish herself, with one social media user sharing a video of her speaking in gibberish that came off as an anti-asian slur as well as seemingly mouthing a racial slur. She is now on an apology tour herself.
The video in question was posted on TikTok and features a younger Billie Eilish (she says she is around 13 or 14 when the video was taken) engaged in activities she says now make her “want to barf.” She noted that in the one bit of a clip she was singing a song lyric and in the second part she did not know she was being offensive with her made up language. She decided to take to Instagram Stories to explain what happened, but also to apologize for the video footage itself (edited for capitalization).
This is something that I WANT to address because I am being labeled something that I am not. There’s a video edit going around of me when I was 13 or 14 where I mouthed a word from a song that at the time I didn’t know was a derogatory term. I am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that I ever mouthed along to that word. This song was the only time I’d ever heard that word as it was never used around me by anyone in my family. Regardless of my ignorance and age at the time, nothing excuses the fact is that it was hurtful. And for that I am sorry.
The song that she was singing is Tyler The Creator's "Fish," which does include a racial slur in a lyric. Billie Eilish went on to explain the second part of the TikTok clip where it seems she is mocking Asian people to note that she has always liked to goof around and speak gibberish. She says the intention was not to make fun of people from a different culture or background.
It is absolute gibberish and just me goofing around, and is in NO way an imitation of anyone or any language, accent, or culture in the SLIGHTEST. Anyone who knows me has seen me joking around with voices all my life.
Billie Eilish has recently been experimenting with her image, including her hair and her wardrobe, as she has continued the process of growing up in the limelight. Some fans were even not happy with her “Lost Cause” music video, noting they felt it was controversial and possibly queerbaiting, though her fanbase was divided when that video rolled out. Going from a child star to an adult star often comes with growing pains and you can see the 19-year-old's full apology post below.
Meanwhile, on the career end of things, Billie Eilish is moving forward with a new album. That’ll be called Happier Than Ever and is expected to hit shelves and streamers on July 30th of this year. She’ll also still be majorly involved in the upcoming Bond 25 movie, No Time To Die, having provided the theme song with her producer brother Finneas for the last Daniel Craig flick. She called the process "insane" but we'll be able to see the end result when the movie hits the schedule on October 8th.
