American by birth but with Scottish and Irish ancestry, it seems unlikely that Billie Eilish would be able to – or have the need to – speak Spanish.
While Billie Eilish ‘broke the internet’ in 2018 with a covered rendition of Eres Tú sung entirely in Spanish (as per the original), she has outwardly confirmed she does not speak Spanish.
Read on to learn more about Billie Eilish’s interactions with the Spanish language.
Spanish, The Old Language
Spanish is a very old and diverse language, being the official or co-cultural tongue of countries all around the world. It’s derived from one of the most ancient known languages: Latin, and in 2020 was spoken by almost 500 million people around the world, making it the second-most spoken language in the world (beating English).
Billie Eilish was born in Los Angeles, California, a location with a huge contingent of Spanish speaking individuals – 36% of the populace, as of 2020. In fact, LA is home to the largest Central American population in the entire United States.
It stands to reason that living among this culture may have some impact on the languages you learn to speak, but this wasn’t the case with Eilish.
Her parents opted to home school her and her brother, Finneas O’Connell, to allow them more time to explore their passions and dreams: music and performance. Given that her parents most likely speak no language other than English, it seems an unrealistic assumption that they would have imposed this learning on their children.
Further, Spanish language studies isn’t part of the advised homeschooling curriculum in California.
However, Billie Eilish – while not speaking Spanish – has taken the time to visit many countries where Spanish is the official language. She has led tours across the world, visiting countries such as Spain and Mexico, wherein she has countless fans that celebrate her music, regardless of the language she sings in.
That One Song
In the middle of 2018, Billie Eilish released a short, somewhat poor-quality video, of herself playing guitar and singing a tender rendition of the Spanish-sung song, Eres Tú, originally performed by Carla Morrison.
This shocked many fans – even the die-hard, lifelong ones – as nobody knew she had any kind of command of the Spanish language.
The song was taken in with great reception, and even the original artist herself praised Eilish’s rendition. There were comments from native Spanish speakers saying how well she handled some of the inflections of the language, in particular, the ‘rolling of the Rs’.
It’s entirely possible to assume that she had studied Spanish somewhat in order to sing this song, but potentially just the lyrics for this one piece exclusively.
People Person
While Billie Eilish has come out and said she doesn’t speak any language other than English at a fluent level, she does try to learn at least the basics to engage with fans at signings, in person and on social media. This is obviously an indicator of her great character, taking the extra step to learn something that doesn’t impact her life in order to further her standing with her adoring fans.
Eilish is loved by her fans through and through, owing mostly to her down-to-earth and genuine personality, attitude and demeanour. While she may look like the poster child for the bizarre and demonic on occasion, she’s actually a soft person at heart who loves those close to her.
In fact, she went undercover on the Ellen Show in 2019, surprising fans who were there to spend time with her (not that they knew it).
It certainly seems that – although she doesn’t speak the native languages of her fans – her love for them transcends those barriers.