Here’s proof that you don’t need to be a certain age to make great music: Billie Eilish and Khalid are a combined 36 years old. The 16-year-old Eilish released her debut EP Don’t Smile At Me last summer, and this summer, she’s a festival staple who will perform at Lollapalooza, Governors Ball, and others over the next few months. Meanwhile, Khalid is only 20, and his debut album, American Teen, went platinum and was unquestionably one of 2017’s best records.
Now the two, neither of whom can legally drink alcohol, have teamed up on a new song called “Lovely,” and well, it’s just that. The track is a slow piano-led ballad about finding something better, and Eilish told Zane Lowe that the song title is actually sarcastic: “We called it that because the song is sorta like really frickin’ depressing, so then it’s like, ‘Oh, how lovely!’ Just taking everything horrible and [being like], ‘You know what? This is so great! I’m so happy being miserable,’ you know?”
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She also said the song didn’t come from any sort of arranged songwriting session, but from the two just chilling together: “It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s go in the studio.’ […] It was like, ‘Hey, come over. Like, let’s hang out.’ So he just came over, we just hung out. Me and my brother hung out with Khalid in our house. I don’t know, it was like… literally, this is us hanging out as friends, and then we ended up writing a song.”
Listen to “Lovely” above.
