In a long-anticipated installment of James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke,” Billie Eilish talked about her love for Green Day and Justin Bieber, rocked two songs on the ukulele — the Beatles’ “I Will” and “What a Wonderful Life,” the first song she ever wrote — and sang several of her own other songs. They also went on a tour of Eilish’s parents’ house, where she’s lived her entire life when not on tour. She also showed him her pet spider and spoke of how having her family on tour has grounded her “maybe more than I realize.”
Among many other accomplishments this year, Eilish was named Variety’s Hitmaker of 2019 and accepted the award at a celebratory party in Los Angeles last week. Variety took a look at both the phenomenon of her success and a deep dive into her and Finneas’ influences and songwriting process in a pair of lengthy cover stories.
As their incredible year comes to a close, Eilish has a whopping 13 platinum or multi-platinum-certified singles, four gold singles, double-platinum album (“When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” released in April) and a platinum EP (2017’s “Don’t Smile at Me”).
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“When we were working on the album, somebody told me and my brother Finneas that there was no hit on the album,” Eilish said during her acceptance speech at Hitmakers. “I don’t know what that was supposed to do, I don’t know how that was supposed to help anyone — but that fool was wrong!” Watch the full speech right here.