Billie Eilish has revealed how a painful hip injury ultimately led her towards a career in music.
The Birds of a Feather hitmaker has reflected on a dance injury she suffered as a pre-teen, which left her “bedridden” and forced her to give up her ambitions of becoming a professional dancer.
Speaking on the latest episode of Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, Billie explained that she had been preparing for her first dance competition when the injury occurred.
“I have a solo in each combo,” she recalled. “I was so excited. We were done with rehearsal. We were about to leave. And our teacher was like, ‘Wait, let’s do one more just to film it.'”
Billie continued, “And so we did one more, And we filmed it, and in the middle of my little twerk – literally 12 years old – my hip is like (pops out), and I got injured.”
The Bad Guy singer, 24, said the injury left her in severe pain and unable to walk or dance.
“Definitely couldn’t do anything and was basically like bedridden for at least a week, and then I was on crutches, and I literally never danced again,” she shared.
However, it was during this period that she and her brother, Finneas, uploaded their track Ocean Eyes to SoundCloud, where it quickly gained attention.
“Then that week I went to all these meetings in my crutches,” Billie stated. “Met with InterScope (Records), I met with all these different booking agents, I had my crutches, and I was so sad.”
Looking back, the singer believes the injury changed the course of her life for the better.
“When you think something is ruining your life, and it’s really actually saving your life,” she said, noting that Ocean Eyes had originally been recorded for her dance teacher.
“We only put it on SoundCloud to send an easier link to the dance teacher,” Billie added. “And so we did. And then that week I was getting ready for competition and then a week later Finneas called me, and he was like, ‘Billy, Ocean Eyes has 1,000 streams, 1,000!'”
Billie has since released three hit albums and won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song.
