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At the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night, Billie Eilish emerged as a five-time winner during the ceremony hosted by Alicia Keys.
The 18-year-old singer and first-time Grammy winner — who grew up recording songs with her brother, Finneas O’Connell, a fellow Grammy winner who co-writes and produces her music, in the bedroom of her parents’ house in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park — was up for six awards during the ceremony.
Eilish won for best vocal pop album, album of the year and record of the year (When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?), song of the year (“Bad Guy”) and best new artist.
In addition, she made history by being the youngest person to be nominated for, and to win, awards in all four general-field categories (album of the year, record of the year, song of the year and best new artist) in the same time period. Eilish is also the only woman to win the big four awards in the same night, and the second artist ever to do so, after Christopher Cross in 1981.
In nabbing song of the year honors, Eilish became the youngest winner since Lorde, who was 17 when she won in 2013 for co-writing “Royals.” Taking the stage to accept her award, she said, “I never thought this would happen in my whole life. I feel like I jump around at these things and I never take anything seriously, but I genuinely want to say that I’m so grateful and I’m honored to be here.”
Finneas expressed his shock at winning, noting that he loved all the other songs in the category. “We make music in our bedroom together, they let us do that, and we still do that,” he said, before encouraging other young musicians to continue their pursuit of music.
During her acceptance for the best new artist Grammy, Eilish thanked her touring team and her fans, who she noted are the reason anybody is on the stage: “I love all fandoms, thank you to the fans, you guys make this worth it. Thank you.” She was the only nominee in the category who reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 Chart.
Upon winning album of the year, Eilish declared, “I’m not going to waste your time, I’m really not. I love you. Thank you for this.” With the award, the singer surpassed Taylor Swift as the youngest winner in Grammy history (Swift was 20 when she won a decade ago for Fearless). It is also the first debut album to win album of the year honors since Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me in 2002.
Upon receiving record of the year honors, Eilish became the youngest winner ever in the category (the distinction was previously held by Sam Smith and Kimbra). She expressed her gratitude as host Keys moved on with the closing speech of the evening.
Meanwhile, Eilish was nominated for best pop solo performance for “Bad Guy,” in which she lost out to Lizzo. Also during the ceremony, Finneas was tapped as producer of the year and received the Grammy for best engineered album in the non-classical category.
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As well as being recognized with major nominations, Eilish and Finneas, 22, performed an emotional acoustic version of “When the Party’s Over” from her debut album. Finneas accompanied Eilish on the piano, and the two sang to an attentive room.
Out on the red carpet, Eilish continued her signature gender-less style trend by wearing a neon-green and black Gucci outfit that complemented her green hair dye, as well as green nail polish, fingerless gloves and dark sunglasses.
Aside from the Grammys, it was recently revealed that Eilish and Finneas have written and recorded the theme song for the 25th James Bond film, No Time to Die, for which Eilish is the youngest person ever to do so.
In reference to the song, which is to be released via Darkroom/Interscope Records, Eilish said in a recent statement, “It feels crazy to be part of this in every way. To be able to score the theme song to a film that is part of such a legendary series is a huge honor. James Bond is the coolest film franchise ever to exist. I’m still in shock.”
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