Finneas O’Connell is Billie Eilish’s big brother, “Eilish’s older brother,” as Sound on Sound puts it, and Rolling Stone tells of him “giving her the song ‘Ocean Eyes’ — which he originally wrote for his old band.” “I remember doing ‘Ocean Eyes’ as a band and just being like, ‘I’m failing the song’ … And I remember hearing Billie sing it … and it was just like, ‘Oh, this is what this song deserves,’” Finneas said.
Billie has told the start of the story in her own words. In Teen Vogue in 2017, she said that “one of my teachers asked if I would either write a song or have my brother write a song to choreograph a dance to,” and that “my brother came to me with ‘Ocean Eyes,’ which he had originally written for his band. He told me he thought it would sound really good in my voice. He taught me the song and we sang it together along to his guitar.” She told EARMILK: “My brother came into my room and said ‘I wrote this song’ and I was like, ‘I know, I’ve heard it, I live right next to you!’” In 2020 she told Seventeen that her dance teacher “asked us to make a song just to choreograph a dance to, so we could do it for the end-of-year recital.”
She was “still only 13 and Finneas 18,” Sound on Sound says, and her vocal was recorded “In a small studio in his bedroom.” “Billie’s vocals for ‘Ocean Eyes’ were recorded with the 2020,” Finneas said: “an Audio-Technica AT2020 microphone, which cost $80.” “Eilish posted her debut single, the understated and heartbreaking ‘Ocean Eyes,’ online in November 2015,” Billboard reported. “We put it on SoundCloud with a free download link next to it so my dance teacher could access it. We had no intentions for it, really,” Billie said. “But basically overnight a ton of people started hearing it and sharing it.” Berklee College of Music says that “when the siblings woke up the next morning, the song had started to go viral.”
She signed a record deal a year later: Billboard wrote in October 2017 of “Eilish, who signed to Darkroom/Interscope in November 2016.” On January 26, 2020, at her first Grammy Awards, she “took home the Grammys’ four biggest awards Sunday night,” CBS News reported; for “The 18-year-old singer-songwriter,” the sweep made her “the youngest person to win the four top prizes.” Billboard called her “the first woman, and second artist ever, to win the top four categories in the same year,” and wrote that “Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas were the big winners of the 2020 Grammy Awards, as they took home five trophies each at the Jan. 26 ceremony.”
“We just make music in a bedroom together,” said Finneas, “her brother and newly-minted 5-time Grammy winner,” as CBS News put it. “We still do that and they let us do that. And this is to all of the kids making music in your bedrooms today. You’re going to get one of these.” They have since won two Oscars together, the Academy’s official results show: at the 94th Oscars in 2022 for “No Time To Die from No Time to Die; Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell,” and at the 96th in 2024 for “What Was I Made For? from Barbie; Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell.” “That dance studio really kind of deserves all the credit for the beginning of this career journey,” Billie told Seventeen in 2020.
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- He wrote this song for his own band, but felt he was failing it. Rolling Stone: “giving her the song ‘Ocean Eyes’ — which he originally wrote for his old band.” Finneas, to Rolling Stone: “I remember doing ‘Ocean Eyes’ as a band and just being like, ‘I’m failing the song’ … And I remember hearing Billie sing it … and it was just like, ‘Oh, this is what this song deserves.’” 1
- His name is Finneas, and his little sister is Billie Eilish. Sound on Sound: “Eilish’s older brother Finneas O’Connell.” 5
- He told her “Ocean Eyes” would sound really good in her voice. Billie, in Teen Vogue: “my brother came to me with ‘Ocean Eyes,’ which he had originally written for his band. He told me he thought it would sound really good in my voice. He taught me the song and we sang it together along to his guitar.” 2
- “I know, I’ve heard it,” she told him. “I live right next to you!” Billie, to EARMILK: “My brother came into my room and said ‘I wrote this song’ and I was like, ‘I know, I’ve heard it, I live right next to you!’” 3
- Her dance teacher wanted a song to choreograph a dance to. Billie, in Teen Vogue: “one of my teachers asked if I would either write a song or have my brother write a song to choreograph a dance to.” Billie, to Seventeen (2020): “He asked us to make a song just to choreograph a dance to, so we could do it for the end-of-year recital.” 24
- She was 13, singing in his bedroom into an $80 microphone. Sound on Sound: “when Eilish was still only 13 and Finneas 18”; “In a small studio in his bedroom.” Finneas, to Sound on Sound: “an Audio-Technica AT2020 microphone, which cost $80”; “Billie’s vocals for ‘Ocean Eyes’ were recorded with the 2020.” Billboard (October 20, 2017): “was just 13 years old when she uploaded her woozy love song ‘Ocean Eyes’ to Soundcloud.” 57
- In November 2015, they put it on SoundCloud for her teacher. Billboard (March 23, 2017): “Eilish posted her debut single, the understated and heartbreaking ‘Ocean Eyes,’ online in November 2015.” Billie, in Teen Vogue: “We put it on SoundCloud with a free download link next to it so my dance teacher could access it. We had no intentions for it, really.” 62
- But almost overnight, people started sharing it. Billie, in Teen Vogue: “But basically overnight a ton of people started hearing it and sharing it.” Berklee College of Music: “when the siblings woke up the next morning, the song had started to go viral.” 28
- A year later, she signed a record deal. Billboard (October 20, 2017): “Eilish, who signed to Darkroom/Interscope in November 2016.” Sound on Sound: “they signed to Darkroom/Interscope in 2016.” 75
- In January 2020, at 18, she won the four biggest Grammys. CBS News: “took home the Grammys’ four biggest awards Sunday night. The 18-year-old singer-songwriter”; “her Grammys sweep makes her the youngest person to win the four top prizes.” Billboard: “at the Jan. 26 ceremony”; “the first woman, and second artist ever, to win the top four categories in the same year.” 910
- Her brother won five Grammys that night too. Billboard (January 27, 2020): “Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas were the big winners of the 2020 Grammy Awards, as they took home five trophies each at the Jan. 26 ceremony.” 10
- “We just make music in a bedroom together,” he said. CBS News: “her brother and newly-minted 5-time Grammy winner said. ‘We just make music in a bedroom together. We still do that and they let us do that.’” 9
- “This is to all of the kids making music in your bedrooms today.” CBS News: “And this is to all of the kids making music in your bedrooms today.” 9
- “You’re going to get one of these.” CBS News: “And this is to all of the kids making music in your bedrooms today. You’re going to get one of these.” 9
Sources
- Finneas on “Optimist” (Music Now podcast write-up by Brian Hiatt, December 9, 2021) Rolling Stone
- How Billie Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes” Turned Her Into an Overnight Sensation (February 24, 2017) Teen Vogue
- Artist to Watch: Billie Eilish breaks out [Interview] (August 29, 2017) EARMILK
- Billie Eilish Says “Ocean Eyes” Was Never Meant to Be Released (April 24, 2020) Seventeen
- Finneas O’Connell: Producing When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (July 2019) Sound on Sound
- Billie Eilish Is Pop’s Most Impressive 15-Year-Old (March 23, 2017) Billboard
- Billie Eilish on Her Viral Breakthrough: ‘I Don’t Want To Take This For Granted’ (October 20, 2017) Billboard
- Shake the Vanity: How FINNEAS Took Pop by Storm from a Bedroom Berklee College of Music
- Huge night for Billie Eilish at her first Grammy Awards (January 27, 2020) CBS News
- Billie Eilish Sales Surge in Wake of Grammy Awards Big Four Sweep (January 27, 2020) Billboard
- The 94th Academy Awards (2022), official results Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- The 96th Academy Awards (2024), official results Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Notes
The order: in Teen Vogue (February 2017), Billie tells of the dance teacher’s request first and then her brother bringing her the song; in EARMILK (August 2017), her brother brings the song first and the request comes a few days later. The Short doesn’t say which came first.
The year: the Los Angeles Times (January 24, 2020) says the song was recorded and uploaded in November 2016; Billboard and Sound on Sound give 2015, and she signed her record deal in November 2016. The Short says November 2015.
“Overnight” is Billie’s own word (Teen Vogue, EARMILK); the Short says “almost overnight.” No play counts are given, because none was found in a reliable source. A popular clip has Finneas saying he asked her to sing it “kind of as a joke”; it couldn’t be traced to a published interview, so it isn’t used.
Ages: Sound on Sound says she was 13 and Finneas 18 when “Ocean Eyes” was made; another interview gives him an age a year off. The Short gives no age for him. The record label, Darkroom/Interscope, isn’t named in the Short.
Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell are alive. Only their music, awards, their own published words and major outlets’ reporting are used; nothing here goes into their health, their family or their private lives. Her dance teacher is not named.
Pictures: Billie Eilish was 13 when “Ocean Eyes” was made, and no photo of her from before her 18th birthday is used. No free photo shows his bedroom studio, her dance school, the SoundCloud upload or the 2020 Grammys night; press and agency photos aren’t used. Billie Eilish is smiling on stage, with her arms raised, and side by side with Finneas on acoustic guitars at The O2 in London on June 16, 2022 (three photos by Raph_PH); in a red-lit arena at The O2 on July 14, 2025 (Raph_PH); and playing guitars with Finneas beside stage flames in Oslo on April 26, 2025 (Premeditated). Finneas is singing at Laneway Festival in Sydney on February 5, 2023 (Bruce Baker), playing an electric guitar at the Beanfield Theatre in Montreal on November 20, 2021 (Solene.dupont), and smiling on a street in Raleigh, North Carolina, on February 16, 2025 (S. Dudley). The Audio-Technica AT2020 microphone, photographed on October 23, 2014 (Lokal_Profil), is the same model, not theirs. The home recording set-up, made for another project on April 25, 2017 (Subhashish Panigrahi), the empty dance studio in Shibuya, Tokyo, on February 10, 2013 (Douglas P. Perkins), and the headphones and phone, a stock photo from January 24, 2017 (wu yi, Unsplash), are stand-ins. The Grammy Awards inside Staples Center in Los Angeles are seen in February 2016, four years before her sweep (David Jones). The fans, musicians and other people in these photos are not named.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
.jpg){kind=link}
_(52152979943)_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
_(52152972246)_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
_(52152970696)_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
_(5).jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
