Page 11 - My FlipBook

Although she has never been a rap or hip-hop artist, so much
about the Billie we see now is down to that genre. The clever
wordplay in her lyrics, her F-you attitude, her outfits, her
movements onstage, and the mosh-pit songs at her shows
all have a connection to hip-hop. That said, she believes she’s
not alone. “Everyone needs to give hip-hop credit—everyone
in the world right now,” she told the New York Times.
“Whatever you’re doing, you’ve been influenced by hip-hop.”

As you would expect, these tracks made very little impact
at the time, with only a small number of plays registering on
SoundCloud. Like thousands of kids (and adults), Billie and
Finneas uploaded them for fun and intended to share them just OVERNIGHT SENSATION
with friends. They never dreamed that they would be played
millions of times. Besides, Billie was busy dancing, working on
her homeschool projects, and having fun. She even attended
her first major concert that autumn, when she and Finneas went
to see the hip-hop-inspired US rock band the Neighbourhood
at the Shrine, a cavernous auditorium in LA. In 2019 she would
return to the venue to play two sold-out concerts of her own.
What happened next would change Billie O’Connell’s life
forever. One of her dance teachers at RDC was Fred Diaz, a
dancer and choreographer who had worked with several top
artists, including Rihanna, Mariah Carey, and Jennifer Lopez.
He knew of Billie and Finneas’s songwriting efforts and had
suggested he could choreograph a dance to one of their
compositions. When she asked him what kind of song he had in
mind, he mentioned “Station” by British singer Låpsley, a song
they had recently danced to, and also alluded to a tune he had
overheard her humming in class. She knew the song immediately. 29