Billie Eilish says being “strong-willed” has helped her to avoid being “used and manipulated” in the music industry.
The 17-year-old singer/songwriter has opened up about her first meeting with music management when she was 13 years old, and recalls people saying she is “going to be used” in the industry and look at her as if to say she was going to have a “horrible career”.
She said: “There has been a whole world of young, especially female artists, and every artist (not just young) being used and manipulated by the stereotypical label or industry.
“There’s kind of this weird name on everything now where it’s like, people expect that. I remember the first time I had any sort of meeting with a label or management, I was 13. I think the only people that didn’t look at me like I was going to have a horrible career were the people that I ended up working with. Everyone was just like, ‘Oh, you’re 13, yikes, you’re going to be used,’ and this and that.
“And I am like, ‘Yo, y’all are the people that would use me in the situation you are talking about.’ So, I don’t know what that is supposed to mean. The only people who didn’t say that s**t was the people that I felt an energy and connection with.”
But Billie feels “really lucky and grateful” with the support she has received from her team because she has “never had any issues” with people attempting to “pull her in different directions”.
Speaking to Pharrell Williams for V Magazine, she added: “I am really, really lucky and grateful that I have had the experience that I had with my label and with my team and everyone, because I never had any issues with people trying to pull me in a different direction, one in which I would not want to be headed.
“I think that might just be because I have always been the kind of person that knows what the f**k I want, and if it’s not what I want, then I am not going to do it.
“It’s really helped me and I think I describe it in different ways where it’s like, I think it’s my best quality and my worst quality, how strong-willed I am because it has brought me here.”
