Over the course of her career, Billie Eilish has always been exceptionally candid - whether she's talking about her experience with negative body image or discussing the public response to comments about her sexuality. However, her frank quotes have often led to spiralling stories - and, it seems, her recent comments about sustainability are no different as she was accused of criticising Taylor Swift.
Billie - who recently won her second Academy Award - made headlines last week when discussing the environmental impact of producing vinyl records. In an interview with Billboard for their sustainability issue, she explained that she believes it's 'wasteful' to release several vinyl versions of one album to increase sales.
Billie explained: "I can't even express to you how wasteful it is. It's some of the biggest artists in the world making f**king 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more."
While the singer didn't target anyone specifically, and a number of artists follow this formula, the quotes angered Swifties who assumed that Billie was making a dig at Taylor Swift. The star is known for creating and releasing a number of iterations of her albums on vinyl, and according to a report by Forbes earlier this year she set a staggering record in 2023; she's reportedly responsible for 7% of all vinyl sales in the US.
The comments fuelled a fan feud on TikTok, but Billie has since attempted to dampen the outrage on social media. On Instagram, she addressed the furore in her stories and posted a slide reading: "Okay so it would be so awesome if people would stop putting words into my mouth and actually read what I said in that Billboard article. I wasn’t singling anyone out, these are industry-wide systemic issues."
Billie Eilish via her Instagram stories takes to THOSE people who bothered with vinyl issues: “okay so it would be so awesome if people would stop putting words into my mouth and actually read what i said in that billboard article. i wasn't singling anyone out... ” pic.twitter.com/HeiwX8XJhHMarch 31, 2024
"And when it comes to variants, so many artists release them - including ME! Which I clearly state in the article. The climate crisis is now and it's about all of us being part of the problem and trying to do better sheesh."
In the article, Billie had noted that all musicians are 'going to do it because it's the only way to play the game', continuing: "It's just accentuating this already kind of messed up way of this industry working."
Well, that's that!
