How Bond Singer Billie Eilish Has Helped Jennifer Lopez Appreciate Her Own Career

Jennifer Lopez in Second Act and Billie Eilish in Xanny music video
(Image credit: (STX Films/Interscope Records))

Jennifer Lopez’s career is seriously next-level. The 51-year-old entertainer is coming off headlining the Super Bowl earlier this year and receiving Oscar buzz for her role in Hustlers. She’s clearly no stranger to witnessing excitement, hyperventilating and happy tears from those who meet her. Much like anything someone faces daily, J-Lo has come to get used to her interactions with fans. But a meeting she witnessed between her daughter and Billie Eilish recently changed her perspective.

Jennifer Lopez recalled to The Corp With A-Rod and Big Cat that after her 12-year-old daughter Emme finished touring with her, they went to see 18-year-old Grammy winner Billie Eilish in concert. J-Lo explained what happened when the two had a chance to get up close and personal with the singer behind the No Time To Die theme song:

I watched my daughter freak out over Billie Eilish ... She walked in the room after the concert, and my daughter goes [gasps]. And I looked at her, and I'm like, 'What's the matter?' and she's, literally, in tears because since 8 years old she's idolized this girl. For whatever reason, her songs and the words she says she connects to, and she loves her style. Whatever it is moves her. It made me think of my fans, like ‘Oh my god, that’s why they’re crying?’ It never connected until I saw my daughter do it. It was a mind-blowing experience for me. It made me appreciate what I do more, my fans more, what Billie did for my daughter. All of it, it was like a full circle moment. We love Billie.

Lopez said that meeting fans after shows has always been a hugely exciting part of her shows, because she can really connect and exchange stories with them. But after seeing her daughter “freak” over her own idol, something new clicked in J-Lo. Through her daughter’s eyes, she could understand why her own fans react the way they do when she meets them. What a beautiful story.

It makes sense when you think about it. Lopez’s experiences are not something one can fully process, I’m sure. But she has watched her daughter idolize Billie Eilish as an artist for the past several years. And after watching Emme possibly get excited about her new music, perhaps even buy her merchandise and talk about her, she witnessed the culmination of that admiration materialize into emotions when she stood in front of her. And then there’s the aha moment for J-Lo.

And Emme knows how to pick em. Billie Eilish established herself as an up-and-coming star when her 2015 hit “Ocean Eyes” blew up on Soundcloud, and she was only 14 at the time. Eilish has since recorded two albums with her brother Finneas – they soared into music phenomena when 2019’s “Bad Guy” became a huge hit along with her genre-defying album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go. The record led to her becoming the youngest and second person ever to win in all four of the main Grammy categories in a single year: Record of the Year, Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Album of the Year.

Billie also hit a first for the Bond franchise when she became the youngest and first artist to record a Bond theme from her bedroom (also with Finneas). You can check out her single, “No Time To Die,” below:

Billie Eilish’s song will be heard in No Time To Die, which arrives in theaters on November 20. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more news.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.