Trending 6th August 2024 by Stellar Magazine

Why Billie Eilish Is Getting Unwarranted Backlash From Her Verse on Charli xcx’s ‘Guess’

Oh come on

The collaboration of the summer has dropped. 

Last Friday, Charli xcx released a new version of her song ‘Guess’ and she had Billie Eilish feature.

A music video came with the drop, which saw Charli and Billie climbing and rolling down a mountain of bras and underwear. At the end of the video, it’s mentioned that all the undergarments will be donated to domestic violence survivors. 

The pair celebrated the release of the song at Charli’s 32nd birthday in Los Angeles on August 2, which featured a star-studded guest list that included some fellow pop girlies like Sabrina Carpenter, Lorde, Tove Lo and Nelly Furtado.

Videos from the night saw Charli and her friends dancing along to her biggest hits.

So iconic!

 

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A post shared by Charli (@charli_xcx)

While fans of Charli and Billie were delighted with this collaboration, especially as Billie never collaborates with other artists, she has also received some backlash from her verse.

In a now-deleted TikTok, user @windows199x posted a snippet of Billie’s verse that included the lyrics, “I wanna try it, bite it, lick it, spit it / Pull it to the side and get all up in it / Kiss it, bite it, can I fit it? / Charli likes boys, but she knows I’d hit it.”

The TikTok user could be seen sitting on the floor solving a Rubik’s cube and included a caption that said, “Billie’s verse on Guess is highkey predatory but y’all blinded by her usual queerbaiting for commercial gain.”

While Charli has not responded to this, it’s clear that she isn’t in agreement because otherwise, she would not have released the song.

Billie’s brother and producer Finneas responded to the TikTok in the comment section, writing, “What a take you little clown. I got to watch the entire internet slam my sister for queer-baiting for an entire year when in reality, you were all forcing her to label and out herself.

 

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A post shared by BILLIE EILISH (@billieeilish)

This is not the first time that Billie has been accused of queerbaiting.

In July 2021, she released the ‘Lost Cause’ music video, which sees her and other women dancing and having fun at a sleepover. She promoted the song on her Instagram and captioned it, “i love girls.”

Many people were quick to accuse her of queerbaiting as she hadn’t addressed her sexuality at the time.

Billie later spoke out about the challenges of navigating her sexuality, all while being in the public eye from a young age after ‘Ocean Eyes’ blew up when she was 13.

In a September 2021 article with Elle, Billie discussed her frustration with how every part of her life has been scrutinised online, including her sexuality, which she made clear was nobody’s business. 

As she has gotten older, she has discussed her sexuality more both in interviews and in some of her songs.

Last November, in an interview with Variety, she said, “I’ve never really felt like I could relate to girls very well. I love them so much. I love them as people. I’m attracted to them as people. I’m attracted to them for real.”

A few months later, while walking a red carpet for the Variety Hitmakers Brunch, an interviewer asked Billie whether she meant to come out in that article. Billie said she didn’t, but she thought it was obvious and voiced that she doesn’t believe in having to come out.

Afterwards, she took to her Instagram to mention how she felt about the interview.

“Thanks variety for my award and for also outing me on a red carpet at 11 am instead of talking about anything else that matters. I like boys and girls. Leave me alone about it please. Literally who cares.”

 

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A post shared by BILLIE EILISH (@billieeilish)

She addressed the Variety story again in April this year while speaking with Rolling Stone.

“I was never planning on talking about my sexuality ever, in a million years. It’s really frustrating to me that it came up.” 

Instead of trying to guess what Billie’s intentions were on her verse, we should embrace this absolute bop she and Charli have graced us with. Charli doesn’t think it’s predatory, so why speculate about it?

Words by Amélie Mahony 

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