Following Billie Eilish’s Barbie song going viral last year and winning the singer her second Oscar, the 22-year-old is getting ready to release her third studio album next month, Hit Me Hard And Soft. Amidst her talking about her forthcoming record, she got candid about her queer identity and sexuality.
Back in December, Billie Eilish was outed on the red carpet after making comments about being attracted to girls on Variety’s cover story about the singer. After she called out the publication for “outing me on a red carpet at 11 a.m. instead of talking about anything else that matters,” she expanded on her thoughts on being out to Rolling Stone. In her words:
[I] was never planning on talking about my sexuality in a million years. The whole world suddenly decided who I was, and I didn’t get to say anything or control any of it. Nobody should be pressured into being one thing or the other, and I think that there’s a lot of wanting labels all over the place. Dude, I’ve known people that don’t know their sexuality, or feel comfortable with it, until they’re in their forties, fifties, sixties. It takes a while to find yourself, and I think it’s really unfair, the way that the internet bullies you into talking about who you are and what you are.
Ahead of the December red carpet appearance, fans of Billie Eilish had a hunch the singer was part of the LGBTQ+ community following her past comments, social media posts along with the queer role in her TV debut, Amazon’s Swarm. However, as Eilish shared with the magazine, she was not happy with the way the public coerced her to speak on the personal subject.
In the new interview, the "What Was I Made For?" singer shared that she’s “been in love with girls” for her “whole life,” but last year she made more concrete realizations about her sexuality. On the upcoming album, there’s a song called “Lunch,” which she played for the first time at a Coachella party that she surprised the festival with during its first weekend. As the lyrics detail: “I could eat that girl for lunch / And she dances on my tongue.”
When Eilish was asked about what she does to decompress, she answered that it was “sex.” Here’s how she expanded on why:
I basically talk about sex any time I possibly can. That’s literally my favorite topic. My experience as a woman has been that it’s seen in such a weird way. People are so uncomfortable talking about it, and weirded out when women are very comfortable in their sexuality and communicative in it. I think it’s such a frowned-upon thing to talk about, and I think that should change. You asked me what I do to decompress? That shit can really, really save you sometimes, just saying. Can’t recommend it more, to be real.
During the cover story, Eilish also opened up about the importance of self-pleasure in her life, saying that it allows her to “have such a raw, deep connection” with herself and empowers her to have “love” for her body that she had not had prior. Despite the singer not planning on delving into these topics prior, it sounds like Hit Me Hard And Soft will allow her to express her thoughts and feelings on the subject in even more powerful ways. Plus, it gives her fans more bangers to enjoy, of course.
Eilish’s album is set to come out on May 17. In the meantime, you can hear her Oscar-winning song “What Was I Made For?” in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which is now streaming with a Max subscription.
