With her uber-cool aesthetic and sludgy pop vocals, Billie Ellish made a name for herself in the music industry at a young age – but did she do it alone? It’s not uncommon to wonder if the American pop star writes her own songs.
Billie Eilish co-writes her songs with her brother, Finneas O’Connell, who is a musician and producer. They both have songwriting credits on her album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” as well as Emmit Fenn, who has a songwriting credit for the bonus album track, “Bitches Broken Hearts.”
Billie Eilish comes from a talented family, as evidenced by her brother’s strong solo music and production career. However, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t also shine on her own terms.
Sibling Musical Duo
Billie Eilish and her brother, who goes by his first name, Finneas, have each found widespread success in the music industry.
Billie Eilish made a name for herself as a nontraditional teen pop icon, who shunned the original mold of bubbly stars like Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, or Justin Bieber, for a more alternative look and musical sound that aligned closely with the current online youth culture. She built and controller her entire aesthetic and public image to align with her music.
Billie Eilish’s music and aesthetic stand out from the pop crowd; slowed down and angsty, her music and visuals veer more towards, as The New York Times put it, “shock artists like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson more than Taylor Swift or Katy Perry.”
You can see her signature look in an Instagram post that the singer posted to promote her album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” below;
As for her brother, Finneas, he is most commonly known for his production and songwriting abilities, having written songs such as Selena Gomez’s “Lose You to Love Me” and “Used to This” by Camila Cabello.
Finneas also commonly appears onstage alongside his sister, Billie Eilish, and they both won five Grammy Awards together in 2020, including Song of the Year and Album of the Year.
However, he also has a solo career in music and released an EP titled “Blood Harmony” in 2019.
Finneas is partially responsible for his sister’s early beginnings in music. He originally wrote her first song, “Ocean Eyes,” so that Billie Eilish and her dance teacher could use it for choreography. The song ended up going viral on SoundCloud, a music streaming website, with over 43 million streams to date.
Billie Eilish’s Musical Career
After the song “Ocean Eyes” blew up, Billie Eilish signed with The Darkroom, a management company that’s part of the larger Interscope Records. The songwriting duo had earned themselves a record deal. They posted “Ocean Eyes” to SoundCloud in 2015, and Billie Eilish signed with The Darkroom in 2016.
Billie Eilish didn’t stop there. Instead, she kept the momentum going and released her 2017 EP, “Don’t Smile at Me,” often stylized as “dont smile at me,” following a common theme of Billie Eilish using either all lowercase or uppercase letters, as is often done in online communities. The album has been described as electropop.
Billie Eilish followed up her EP in 2019 with her debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”, stylized in all capital letters, with 13 total songs. It broke records upon release, as 12 out of the 13 tracks charted on the Billboard 100, and the album peaked at the number one position on the chart.
Apart from her musical prowess, Billie Eilish is known for her signature style, a combination of baggy streetwear and what has been described as “neo-goth” by Vox. Her eye-catching hairstyle of long black hair with dyed neon green roots also makes her easy to spot in a crowd.
Although Billie Eilish is making waves in the music industry, she couldn’t have done so without the help of her brother, Finneas. The musician is incredibly grateful for all his help, and as Variety reported, she often “affectionately introduces [him] to concert audiences as “my big brother and my best friend.”
Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell are quite the dynamic musical duo and are surely writing and producing more groundbreaking hits for their respective audiences. Whatever they end up creating, it’s sure to make fans go, “!!!!!!!” – much like her debut album’s hilarious opening track.