Los Angeles (AFP)
Crowned Sunday evening at the Grammy Awards, the embodiment of cool with a haunting deep voice and quirky punk-rock style, American singer Billie Eilish embodies a new genre of iconoclastic pop star.
The teenager has just sealed her music heavyweight status in Los Angeles, becoming the first woman and the youngest artist to win the awards in the four queen categories.
Billie Eilish, 18, named Woman of the Year 2019 by Billboard magazine, is experiencing a phenomenal ascent.
In the space of a few months, she released her album "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?", Took the lead with her single "bad guy" and set fire to the scene of the Coachella festival.
The most popular of generation Z artists - people born after 1997 - masters the internet codes to perfection and is personally involved in social networks.
At just 13 years old, she published her first single, "Ocean Eyes", on Soundcloud, a streaming platform that helped make a whole generation of young independent rappers famous.
Written and produced by the singer's main collaborator, her brother Finneas O'Connell, the song quickly became a huge success. The star discovered on the internet signs a contract with the Interscope label at the age of 14.
Billie Eilish skillfully permeates his often somber lyric content, which deals in particular with death, depression and fear of climate change, funny or ironic remarks.
The young woman who quotes the grunge group Nirvana as inspiration sings in a hoarse voice bordering on murmuring, carpeted with minimalist bass borrowed from electro and hip-hop.
"We did this album in a bedroom," said Billie Eilish next to his brother, backstage at the Grammys after winning five trophies.
"It looks like anything is possible, actually," she added with a laugh.
- "Surprised and grateful" -
The singer has very particular clothing tastes and refuses that her body is sexualized against her will. She often wears XXL size sweatshirts and pants, which she matches with sunglasses and long false nails in bright colors.
On Sunday, she wore an oversized Gucci pantsuit with sparkling lime details, reminiscent of her neon green roots, and even sported a surgical-inspired black mask on the red carpet.
"There are so many other songs that deserved (this award, note), I'm sorry," said Billie Eilish in her thank-you speech for the "bad guy" award.
Her 22-year-old brother later added that they did not expect to win any awards.
"We didn't write an album to earn awards. We wrote an album on depression, suicidal thoughts and climate change. You see us surprised and grateful."
- Committed to women -
The singer promotes the sorority between women artists and refuses to consider that the success of one overshadows that of others.
Sunday, she paid tribute to the queen of baroque pop Lana Del Rey, named like her for the album of the year and who left empty-handed from the Grammys.
"I don't want to hear that Billie Eilish is the new Lana Del Rey. Do not disrespect Lana like that! This woman has had a unique leg since the start of her career and she shouldn't have to hear that," had she said about the singer whose languorous album was tipped to win the title finally won by Eilish.
"I don't want to hear that someone is the new Billie Eilish in a few years," she added. An unlikely prospect given the inimitable peculiarities of the superstar, his raw talent and his meteoric rise, which now includes his coronation to the Grammys.
© 2020 AFP