Both Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey rose to indie pop stardom and mainstream fame, only a decade apart from each other. In a piece for Interview Magazine, the two singers bonded over being the targets of harsh words as young artists in two different eras of pop music.
Del Rey received heat when she first began her career in the early 2010’s from those who deemed her persona and lyrics anti-feminist. While she was being interviewed by Eilish for the February 14th piece, the singer reflected on the real life consequences she faced as a result of the negativity surrounding her.
She recalled, “All of a sudden, I was walking down the street as I always did, and people would throw elbows at me, I was like, ‘Oh my god, no way did that actually happen.’ Someone recognized me and gave me a shove. Or in San Francisco, I was eating at a bistro and a woman threw a book about feminism at my face.”
Lana added, “Everyone gets their fair share of thinkpieces, but there were definitely some 60-page articles about me being the face of feminine submission and the pro-domestic whatever, That was quite tough, because at the time, I was just trying to figure things out. For me, it was trial by fire, It’s definitely a different era now.”
Eilish added about TikTok saying, “I swipe to the next one and it’s a video with millions of likes and it’s something about how I’m a horrible person, And all these comments are like, ‘I’m so glad that you guys are seeing through her.’ And I’m like, ‘Damn.’”
Elish continued to say, “They don’t ever let anything go, You literally can’t make a single mistake ever. No matter what you do to redeem yourself, it doesn’t matter. They decide that’s who you are and that you deserve death.” She concluded in telling Lana, “People have been trying to look and sound like you since you first started. You changed the way the music industry hears and sees music, and you changed the way people sing.”
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