Aspirational, relatable and effortlessly spectacular, the 17-year-old pop sensation’s debut album didn’t disappoint – duhThe 50 best albums of the yearMore on the best culture of 2019Over the last two years, Billie Eilish has attained a startling dominion over teen and tweenage pop fans: on release, her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? went to No 1 in 21 countries. A lot of ink has been spilt trying to work out how she did it. Barely older than her fans, Eilish is both an aspirational figure – 18 today, she appears to be completely in control of her own destiny, eschewing standard
music industry pop procedures in favour of writing and producing her own material at home with her elder brother – and, to use a current buzzword, relatable.
She seems to speak to her audience unmediated. If she is carefully styled, she doesn’t look it: her image most closely resembles what would happen if you let a teenager loose in a succession of skatewear shops and designer boutiques with an unlimited budget. In almost every photograph, she fixes the camera with a heavy-lidded glare, her eyes saucers of contempt. She looks remarkably as though she’s about to start an interminable argument about hanging up her towel in the bathroom after she’s used it or whether or not she needs to be home by 11 at the latest.