The Killers classic that Billie Eilish used to cry to
Billie Eilish might be a serial record breaker and the youngest artist to headline Glastonbury. However, at heart, she’s still another music fan who uses songs to navigate her emotions. When she was feeling down as a teenager, just like the rest of us, she turned to her record collection, and there was one particular track Eilish found herself returning to.
The Killers are a group that soundtracked the early years of her life, which is a scary thought for anybody reading this who remembers when they were a new band. Eilish was only two-years-old when the Las Vegas natives released their debut album, Hot Fuss, and it’s a record which has been with her throughout her life.
Moreover, it’s an album that soundtracked her childhood and was constantly on in the family home. For sentimental reasons, both Eilish and her brother Finneas have a special place in their hearts for that record they bonded over as children.
Although ‘Mr Brightside’ is a song that has been relentlessly overplayed, and most of us would happily never hear it again in our lives, Eilish thinks differently, as does Finneas. When she was younger and needed to cry, she’d run to the family car and blast the song at full volume to drown out her tears.
Speaking to Variety, Finneas opened up about his affinity to the group and commented: “The Killers is a band that I think we both sort of view as a childhood favourite – especially [debut album] Hot Fuss, because ‘Mr Brightside’ on it is just such an important piece of music to us.”
Eilish then weighed in and admitted her embarrassing connection to the song: “I mean, there was a lot of times when I would just sit in the car and cry to ‘Mr Brightside’ even though nothing in my life, at all, was that situation. Their music just makes you feel heard – even if what you feel heard for isn’t how you feel, if that makes sense. I love it – love The Killers.”
The phenomenon of ‘Mr. Brightside’ is difficult to comprehend, let alone explain. Despite it being released almost two decades ago and only lasting four weeks in the UK chart upon its initial release, over recent years, it’s become an ever-present fixture in the Top 100.
Remarkably, in 2021, it celebrated its 260th non-consecutive week in the chart, which is the equivalent of five full years, and no other song is even close to chasing down The Killers’ record. Astonishingly, according to figures released last year by the Official Chart Company, ‘Mr Brightside’ is streamed 1.2 million times a week on average and sold over 3.5 million copies.
Watch the footage below of The Killers performing ‘Mr. Brightside’ with Johnny Marr at Glastonbury in 2019.
