Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fabulous songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we turn the calendar back to 2017, when a fresh-faced 16-year-old named Billie Eilish has just released her debut single, “Ocean Eyes.”
In the song, the artist portrays a young woman suffering through a devastating breakup. She still loves her ex-boyfriend and is longing for his brilliant “diamond mind” and his dreamy “ocean eyes.”
She sings, “I’ve been walking through / A world gone blind / Can’t stop thinking of your diamond mind / Careful creature made friends with time / He left her lonely with a diamond mind / And those ocean eyes.”
The official music video of the song has been viewed on YouTube an astounding 514 million times.
Co-written by her brother, Finneas Baird O’Connell, “Ocean Eyes” was originally recorded for a dance class in 2015, when Eilish was only 14 years old. The intention was to have her dance teacher choreograph a routine to the music.
“We put it on SoundCloud with a free download link next to it so my dance teacher could access it,” Eilish told Teen Vogue. “We had no intentions for it, really. But basically overnight a ton of people started hearing it and sharing it.”
The song soon went viral with 35 million streams on Spotify alone.
“Ocean Eyes” was featured as the lead single from Eilish’s debut EP, Don’t Smile at Me, which was released in August of 2017. One month later, she made her national TV debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Apple Music named Eilish the UPNEXT artist of the month in October 2017.
A little more than two years later, at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, Eilish would become only the second artist to sweep all the General Field categories in the same year. She won Best New Artist, Best New Album, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album.
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was born in Los Angeles in 2001 to a family of actors and musicians. She began writing songs at age 11, following the footsteps of her older brother, who was already performing original songs with his band.
Please check out Eilish’s official music video of “Ocean Eyes.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Ocean Eyes”
Written by Arron Carl Davey and Finneas Baird O’Connell. Performed by Billie Eilish.
I’ve been watching you
For some time
Can’t stop staring at those ocean eyes
Burning cities and napalm skies
Fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes
Your ocean eyes
No fair
You really know how to make me cry
When you gimme those ocean eyes
I’m scared
I’ve never fallen from quite this high
Falling into your ocean eyes
Those ocean eyes
I’ve been walking through
A world gone blind
Can’t stop thinking of your diamond mind
Careful creature made friends with time
He left her lonely with a diamond mind
And those ocean eyes
No fair
You really know how to make me cry
When you gimme those ocean eyes
I’m scared
I’ve never fallen from quite this high
Falling into your ocean eyes
Those ocean eyes
No fair
You really know how to make me cry
When you gimme those ocean eyes
I’m scared
I’ve never fallen from quite this high
Falling into your ocean eyes
Those ocean eyes
Credit: Photo by Justin Higuchi from Los Angeles, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
