Billie Eilish, global citizen

Billie Eilish has been making the rounds as of late for a couple of different news items: one that has her sticking the middle finger to Southern lawmakers, the other about her taking top billing at one of the largest festivals in the world...

From the get-go, you could tell this lady was different: Billie Eilish had an interesting persona at the age of 16 (some might say quirky), she worked with her brother (and pretty much only him in the beginning), she wore baggy clothes when most teenage stars prefer showing their belly button off (even the great Olivia Rodrigo)… And, most of all, she had a sound. Rather, she and brother Finneas had a sound. And that has only been confirmed with the release of this year’s sophomore Happier Than Ever, an interesting evolution towards more crystalline arrangements. Serving the same crystalline voice. That Miss Eilish also uses to comment on things on occasion…

Indeed, over the weekend, the artist was on stage performing at the Austin City Limits Festival. While there in Austin, Texas, she figured she might as well take the opportunity to address a recent change in the state’s legislation that virtually prevents women from getting an abortion. While US federal law remains unchanged, private Texas citizens are now effectively deputized to sue medical professionals who do perform abortions for women over 6-weeks pregnant — even following rape or incest. Commenting on this “sh*t law”, as she eloquently put it, she then concluded: “My body, my f**king choice”. Sounds about right.

But that is far from all the news coming from Eilish world these days: as it happens, it was also recently announced that the superstar is set to headline the Glastonbury festival next year. This is major, no matter how you choose to look at it:

Glastonbury is one of the largest and most influential musical festivals in the world, having housed everyone from Radiohead to Jay-Z, from David Bowie to Bruce Springsteen;
Eilish will be the youngest ever solo performer to headline said festival, which is one more ‘first’ that should be added to her already ridiculously impressive list of accomplishments;
This would mark the grand return of the festival, after being off for 2 years, for reasons everyone quite evidently knows about. Granted, a virtual event took place this year with live streaming involved, but anyone who’s ever been to a rock festival will tell you — that’s just not the same.

So there you have it: next year, then-20 year old Billie Eilish will have one more thing to be unabashedly proud of. You go girl.