When Billie Eilish met Stormzy

September 7, 2021 9:12 AM

The two artists, beacons of excellence in pop, come together to discuss failure, rejecting the role model label and Stormzy's favourite Billie track. [i-D]
posted by ellieBOA (4 comments total)

Great article and discussion. I don't know Billie Eilish's music at all but I love Stormzy. Great conversation between the two of them.
posted by shoesietart at 10:17 AM on September 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Stormzy headlined the Reading and Leeds festivals recently. As Reading was traditionally a heavy rock festival, Stormzy's manager thought it would be cool to open the show with a heavy guitar introduction. The guitarist they chose, Rabea Massaad, is well-known to YouTube guitar-heads as a demonstrator on the channel for the shop Andertons, and here he explains how it came about and what it was like to do the show. Basically alone on a stage in front of 90,000 is quite an intense first gig back after lockdown.

(Personally not a Stormzy listener, but he seems like a good egg.)
posted by Grangousier at 2:48 PM on September 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

They talk about this right at the start, but this clip of Stormzy meeting Billie backstage at the Brits is just so endearing; he's crashing her interview to tell her how much he loves her lyrics and gushing.
posted by Superilla at 4:25 PM on September 7, 2021

Just in the past short while I've read interviews with Billie Eilish, Halsey, and Lourde, and all three of them are young women who found pop music fame early in their lives, and they all seem to be on more or less the same page with the whole "being a pop star" thing, and it seems to be much healthier than in generations past.

I sort of have hope for the kiddos coming up, really.
posted by hippybear at 4:10 PM on September 8, 2021 [1 favorite]