Photo by Sam Balaban
Teen singer Billie Eilish has seen her star rise rapidly over the past year, as fans await the release of her debut album later in 2019. Her 2017 EP, don’t smile at me, has experienced a surge of interest, too, with songs like “Ocean Eyes” and “idontwannabeyouanymore” entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time last week. The latter song has also experienced an explosion of popularity on Genius, fueled in part by a bizarre edit on Twitter.
The 10-second clip, taken from her Verified episode on “idontwannabeyouanymore,” has earned over 2.2 million views on Twitter since being posted on January 13. In the ensuing days, the song has rapidly risen in popularity on Genius. It averaged 4,500 daily pageviews in December and January, but earned more than 40,000 on January 14 alone. Billie’s song reached No. 2 on Genius' Top Songs chart today, eclipsed only by The Weeknd and Gesaffelstein’s Drake-subbing track, “Lost in the Fire.”
The renewed interest in the song could have a long tail effect on its chart performance, too. After debuting at No. 100 on last week’s Hot 100 chart, “idontwannabeyouanymore” rose to No. 98 this week. It’s also back on Spotify’s US Top 50 chart, coming in at No. 47 as of publication. This spike in popularity, which began on Sunday, isn’t included in Billboard’s last tracking week, which ends on Friday. As such, Billie’s song could climb higher next week.
The viral Twitter post is just one of several Genius-based edits of Billie that have gained popularity in the past week:
While their intent is seemingly to poke fun at Billie, it appears that she will ultimately benefit from the renewed attention on her 2017 songs as she prepares for the release of her debut album. She’s not the only artist to score a viral moment from their Verified episode, either. Gabbie Hanna’s “Monster” high note turned into a meme across Twitter and YouTube late last year, while Lil Yachty earned widespread press coverage in 2017 after claiming he thought the cello was a woodwind instrument.
Watch Billie’s Verified episode above, and catch up on all the lyrics to “idontwannabeyouanymore” on Genius now.
