Finneas Eilish says it's a huge disservice to his sister if people ponder on who the 'next Billie Elish' is
Anyone who watched the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in January would know a certain young artist was the ceremony's biggest highlight. It wasn't long after Billie Eilish stepped on stage to accept her first Grammy that audiences were blown away by the fact that she just kept coming back and made history by winning a total of five awards that night.
Her brother, Finneas, received his fair share of Grammys as well, but since then, he has been asked a question, repeatedly: Who is the "next Billie Eilish?" On April 28, Finneas spoke on the topic with Hanuman Welch on Apple Music's ALT CTRL.
Finneas opened up about his sister and said, "Well, the only version of that question that I can get behind is who is the next person that will do exactly what they want and be deemed pop music? That verbiage I would understand, but to me it does a disservice to two things. It does a huge disservice to Billie, in that you could be a next Billie."
"It also does a huge disservice to anyone they claim Billie is the next version, you know what I mean?" he continued, adding that it would also be a huge disservice to Lorde and Lana Del Rey. "And I think that to me it was like, it's not cyclical in that way. Billie was nominated for album of the year, the same year Lana was. It's not like you pass the torch and then you just retire," he said.
He concluded his explanation, saying, "I think the whole response to our art being so positive is that it rings true and it feels a unique thing and I feel that was the thing that we strive for in the beginning was to not conform to any preconceived notions of what we should be doing," and added, "And I think Lorde did the same thing. I think Lana has done the same thing. They've both been influences of ours, for sure. I also was like, 'Isn't she a little new for there to be a next of any?' Do you know what I mean? Imagine if somebody was like, 'Who's the next Timothée Chalamet?' It's like, he's currently Timothée Chalamet."
Listen to the full interview here.