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No Time To Die’s latest songstress, Billie Eilish, is having a huge week thanks to the release of her new album Happier Than Ever. After nearly a year of buildup, the 19-year-old has shared a lot about what’s on her mind through her lyrics, including her relationship with her body. It has been a subject in the press recently as Eilish has switched up her trademark oversized t-shirts, and now she has expanded the conversation as she gets ready to release her Disney+ special.
Billie Eilish’s new music will be featured in an upcoming movie titled Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles, which is coming to Disney+. As Eilish opens up about the content of her hit record, she spoke about her relationship with being in her own skin, saying:
When I’m on stage, I have to disassociate from the ideas I have of my body. Especially because I wear clothes that are bigger and easier to move in without showing everything – they can be really unflattering. In pictures, they look like I don’t even know what. I just completely separate the two. Because I have such a terrible relationship with my body, like you would not believe, so I just have to disassociate… Then you get a paparazzi picture taken when you were running to the door and had just put anything on, and didn’t know the picture’s being taken, and you just look how you look, and everyone’s like, ‘Fat!’
Billie Eilish is referring to a round of paparazzi pictures Page Six published in October of her walking in a tank top and shorts that went viral. The singer typically layers up for this exact reason, unfortunately. She didn’t want to be sexualized as a young artist and has her own negative feelings about her figure she’s had to start coming to terms with while millions of people around the world follow her career. Eilish continued to speak about an issue that is relatable to a lot of young women:
I see people online, looking like I’ve never looked. And immediately I am like, oh my God, how do they look like that? I know the ins and outs of this industry, and what people actually use in photos, and I actually know what looks real can be fake. Yet I still see it and go, oh God, that makes me feel really bad. And I mean, I’m very confident in who I am, and I’m very happy with my life… I’m obviously not happy with my body, but who is?”
As Billie Eilish pointed out, almost no one has come to terms with their own skin these days as social media and magazine covers promote a ridiculous standard of beauty. During the interview with The Guardian, she connected her experience to one new song on Happier Than Ever:
‘OverHeated’ applies to all the people who promote unattainable body standards. It’s completely fine to get work done – do this, do that, do what makes you feel happy. It’s just when you deny it and say, ‘Oh, I got this all on my own, and if you just tried harder, you could get it.’ That makes me literally furious. It is so bad for young women – and boys, too – to see that.
During “Overheated,” Billie Eilish sings “All these other inanimate bitches, it’s none of my business/Don’t you get sick of posing for pictures with that plastic body?” The song also speaks head on to the issue with the lyrics “Is it news? News to who? That I really just look like the rest of you.” Eilish’s media narrative goes to show how much attention our society places on female bodies, even when a celebrity like her is not even trying to bring focus to it.
In another track off Happier Than Ever, called “Not My Responsibility” that is spoken word, Billie Eilish got honest about the way in which she is constantly judged no matter what she wears. Check out her short film illustrating her point of view:
Following the album’s release, Billie Eilish will release the Disney+ special Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles, which will see the singer play her record in the Hollywood Bowl in sequential order. You can sign up for Disney+ using this link ahead of its release date on September 3. Her theme to No Time To Die will appear in the movie when Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond comes out on October 8.
