After nearly a year of anticipation surrounding Billie Eilish’s next studio album, Happier Than Ever has been on repeat in the ears of fans all weekend. The collection of 16 songs is another ambitious work for the 19-year-old that touches on all sorts of topics including heartbreak, the pitfalls of fame, sexual fantasies and abusive partners. With the release, the singer/songwriter’s voice feels more raw and honest than ever but, according to Eilish, in some ways, she’s actually putting up more walls this time around.
No Time To Die’s Billie Eilish shares a lot with her fans. Earlier this year, the teen released the documentary A World’s A Little Blurry that had a camera going behind the curtain on some of the most intimate moments of her career and personal life. She is candid about her struggles with depression and still jumps on live chats with her fans over Instagram. Yet as her fame has expanded she admits she has distanced herself from social media:
Even though I come off as very open and bold, I don’t tell the internet shit about my actual life because I don’t think that anybody should, actually. That can make you go crazy when there’s 80-fucking-8 million people watching you.
That’s a lot of eyes looking Eilish's way and, as she admits in Happier Than Ever, it’s not always something she enjoys. In “NDA,” she sings lyrics alluding to a simple interaction with a “pretty boy,” involving the signing of legal documents. Not your average teen romance scenario, is it? Billie Eilish continued to share her relationship with internet culture nowadays:
I want to hear what people have to say, and also, because I’ve grown up on the internet, I mostly agree with a lot of what the internet says. Some of the things that they make fun of people for are funny because they’re kinda true, right? Which then worries me because I’m like, ‘Oh, God, are the mean things [about me] actually true? And what are they?’ I want to know them! But I don’t want to know them, because what is that going to do for me? Nothing.
In the past few months alone, Billie Eilish has been through the ringer regarding viral responses to her career. When she decided to don corsets for Vogue to promote body positivity, she opened up about commenters calling her a “slut”. On a track called “Not My Responsibility” in Happier Than Ever, she speaks to public perception of her body whether she piles on layers or reveals more skin. Eilish continued her conversation with Los Angeles Times about social media with these words:
Otherwise I will spiral out, and shit's mean as fuck. There are some people, like my brother, who can get a text from someone he doesn’t like and delete it immediately. He won’t even read it. I can’t do that. If Satan himself texted me, I’d be, like, ‘What did he say?’
Billie Eilish does care about what people think of her, and that’s more difficult to wrestle with when it’s so easy to access as a famous person. Recently, the singer took to Instagram to apologize for mouthing a racial slur in a Tyler, The Creator song when she was 13 years old. At the end of the day, Eilish’s work speaks for itself more than she ever could in a social media post. Check up her latest music video for “Happier Than Ever,” an emotional breakup tune:
The singer will perform tracks from her album on an upcoming Disney+ concert movie, Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles.The special arrives on the streaming platform on September 3rd.
