Billie Eilish responds to Lana Del Rey hailing her the “voice of our generation”
Following the release of her new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie Eilish has responded to Lana Del Rey claiming she is the “voice of our generation”.
Earlier this year, Eilish made a guest appearance with Del Rey during the latter’s headline appearance at Coachella. During the performance, the pair of artists joined forces to delight the Californian crowd with renditions of ‘Ocean Eyes’ and ‘Video Games’, which was a surreal moment for Eilish who grew up idolising the work of Del Rey.
Before Eilish made her way onto the stage, Del Rey told the crowd: “That’s the voice of our generation, the voice of your generation. I’m so fucking grateful she’s standing next to me right now, singing my favourite song of hers.”
Furthermore, last year, for a feature in Interview magazine, Eilish told Del Rey, “You really paved the way for everyone. People have been trying to look and sound like you since you first started. I talk about this with Finneas.”
The ‘Lunch’ singer continued: “You changed the way the music industry hears and sees music, and you changed the way people sing.”
The respect between the two globally-renowned artists is certainly mutual, and while she didn’t have the coolness to respond to Del Rey’s comments at Coachella, instead jokingly telling her to “get the fuck out”, Eilish has now discussed the remarks with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show.
When the host brought up Del Rey’s compliment, Eilish labelled it “ridiculous” before returning the favour and claiming her peer is one of the “top three reasons” she has become the artist and person she is today. Eilish added: “It was crazy to hear her say that. I love her so much.”
The singer-songwriter then listed off an array of her other inspirations. Intriguingly, Eilish chose to shine a light on influences from a bygone era of pop, giving love to Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Julie London and Johnny Mathis.
Due to the nature of those four names mentioned above, Colbert asked her whether she would potentially consider recording an album of standards in the future, which elicited the following response from Eilish: “Yeah, yeah, I would love to do that some day.”
In a four-star review of Hit Me Hard and Soft, Far Out wrote: “The now-22-year-old superstar has been one of the most influential artists of the modern era since arriving in 2019 with When We All Fall Asleep. That has presented its own set of peculiar problems that she both triumphantly quashes and struggles to overcome in this latest release. Having seemingly grown up in the public eye, Eilish relishes the chance to state that we don’t really know her at all. This sentiment of taking ownership of her own sexuality, identity and life, in general, provides a central thread to the record that is as captivating as it is moving.”
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.