Billie Eilish has never been one to shy away from commenting on big issue topics, like body shaming and support for Black Lives Matter, and now she’s taking no prisoners in calling out double standards in the music industry while simultaneously recognising her own white privilege.
Speaking of Billie Eilish, the GOAT team talk about her 007 theme song ‘No Time To Die’ on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
Chatting to GQ about life, body image, and a whole host of other topics, Billie Eilish got talking about the issue of white privilege and double standards in the music industry when the Tyler, the Creator’s comments at the 2020 Grammys about categorisation being “a politically correct way to say the n-word” were brought up.
Billie didn’t shy away, saying “I have always hated categories” and agreed with Tyler on how categorisation at the Grammys revolves more around outdated views on race and stereotypes than the actual music, noting how Lizzo was pigeonholed into the R&B category when she’s more pop.
“I hate when people say, ‘Oh, you look like “blank”. You sound like “blank”.’ It was such a cool thing Tyler said. I agree with him about that term. Don’t judge an artist off the way someone looks or the way someone dresses. Wasn’t Lizzo in the Best R&B category that night? I mean, she’s more pop than I am.”
Acknowledging how she’d “probably be in ‘rap'” if she wasn’t white, Billie Eilish then talked about her privileged position of being a white person in music and the double standards that come along with it.
Pointing out how the “world wants to put you in a box” and how she’s deemed as pop because she’s a “white teenage female,” Billie agrees that being white almost certainly played a part in her 2020 Grammys success.
However, she also made sure to point out how it doesn’t “undermine” how she still had to work hard to get to where she is now.
“Of course, then there’s the other side of this whole thing: people shitting on me because I am white. ‘Oh, she’s white, that’s why she won.’ And you know what? I agree with the sentiment; I get why people say that.
“Truth is, they can say whatever they like, but don’t undermine all the hard work it took for me to get here.”
Given all that’s going on with the protests over George Floyd’s death and Black Lives Matters, it seems like Billie Eilish is definitely more open than ever in calling out racism and white privilege these days, and we’re totally here for it every time she does.
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