While we’ve never had any reason to believe Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift aren’t on good terms, some pointed comments made by the “What Was I Made For Singer” are now making some Swifities think otherwise.
Eilish recently sat down with Billboard for an interview published on March 28, 2024. In the interview, the 22-year-old singer talked about being environmentally conscious and committing to sustainability efforts throughout her career. Naturally, she had some thoughts about how the music industry contributes to larger environmental issues, and the conversation eventually led to her making some passionate comments about how “wasteful” some artists are when it comes to selling records.
“We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging … which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money,” Eilish said. “I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is.”
She continued, “It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable — and then 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.”
“It’s so wasteful,” she reiterated, before calling out the greed involved in these decisions. “It’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favorite artists doing that sh-t,” Eilish added.
While the “Ocean Eyes” singer never referred to Swift directly, some social media users are convinced that her comment were referring to the pop star. As Swifties know by now, the 34-year-old singer has another album, The Tortured Poets Department, slated to release in April 2024. Ahead of its release, Swift announced there would be several editions of the album, including “The Bolter” and “Black Dog,” some of which are already available to purchase in vinyl form. It wouldn’t be Swift’s first time releasing multiple vinyl editions of her records—and given her history, it’s easy to see why some people would draw the connection.
As one X user wrote, Eilish “clocked Taylor swift bad😭😭.” Another added, “the taylor diss,” while another agreed, writing, “She dragged Taylor through the mud I’m crying.”
Others, however, defended Eilish’s comments and noted that Swift isn’t the only star who releases multiple vinyl versions of their albums. “swifties mad in the quotes when billie is 100% right and taylor isn’t even the only artist who does this so why do u think she’s the only one being shaded,” one X user wrote. “Everyone clocking Taylor for this when we’ve seen artists like Ariana, Olivia, etc. doing the exact same thing now,” another person shared. “So let’s not point any fingers.”
Swift’s forthcoming album was announced back in February 2024, after she took home her 13th Grammy Award for Pop Vocal Album for Midnights. Following the major announcement, the pop star took to Instagram to reveal the album cover for The Tortured Poets Department and confirm the release Date: April 19, 2024.
“And so I enter into evidence my tarnished coat of arms, my muses, acquired like bruises, my talismans and charms. The tick, tick, tick of love bombs, my veins of pitch black ink,” read the second slide in the carousel post, seemingly hinting at some of the upcoming record’s lyrics. “All’s fair in love and poetry… sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department.”