Billie’s Freaky

Birtdhay girl Billie Eilish has a reputation for over-the-top imagery presented with subtle, soft musical tones vocalized by her famously husky, sometimes eery voice. Her music videos are even… stranger with the usage of surrealism. She uses this concept to convey her message in unusual ways. As the queen turns 18 today , we review her top 5 music videos!

Xanny, 2019

This video depicts Billie being used as a human ashtray. People are seen smoking outside the camera frame and then stubbing their ciggerette butts on her face rather aggressively. She condemns the usage of drugs and cigarettes by young adults and its glorification in the media, with the help of this triggering metaphor. Eilish has always thrived on imagery with a canvas that induces the horror and pain reflected in one’s mind, and with the imagery of ‘Xanny’ it is easy to see her dislike of some seriously toxic habits of Gen Z.

Bury a Friend, 2019

In this video Billie faces her phobias of being manhandled and pricked with needles in her back. This eerie video, directed by Michael Chaves, features Eilish as the monster under the bed, stalking the rapper Crooks, turning this visual into a musical version of American Horror Story.

Lovely, 2018

‘Lovely’ was her first collab with Khalid. In this video, the duo are trapped in a glass box as we witness a relationship deteriorate. How bad are things? Eilish sings “Oh, I hope someday I’ll make it out of here, even if it takes all night or a hundred years.” By the time the video ends, the relationship has literally frozen over! Talk about being icy!

I dont want to be you anymore, 2018

This video feature Billie in a stark white setting, all alone, with colour palette reflecting loneliness too. She is seated on a white couch wearing white overalls to match her bleached hair. Directed by Eli Born, the singer sings into the mirror unveiling her insecurities. Slowly revealing that she doesn’t like her reflection in the mirror, she sings “I don’t want to you anymore.” This heartwrenching video broke most of her fans. Completely undersatndable.

You should see me in a crown, 2019

The singer revealed in an interview that all the stunts in the video were performed by her and not CGI. Disturbing clips of spiders crawling out of her mouth were performed by her, please Billie, PLEASE! The video should have had some trigger warnings for fans who struggle with certain phobias or are just plain icky about stuff.