– Don’t let this leak online, says Perry jokingly in a new video.
Katy Perry (38), one of the world’s biggest pop stars a decade ago, regrets not taking the chance to work with one of her heirs when she had the opportunity.
In a session posted on TikTok by radio station KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, Perry says that a few years ago she received an email from an employee at her record company, who thought they should work with an artist and a song he had received sent.
– There was a song called “Ocean Eyes”, and it was like just a blonde girl, says Perry.
– And I was like “nah, boring”.
Milliard-miss
“Ocean Eyes” is a song by the then unknown Billie Eilish (14 then, 21 now). She posted it on SoundCloud in the fall of 2015, and the song quickly went viral.
It was later re-released as her second official single – and was instrumental in giving Eilish her big break.
“Ocean Eyes” has now passed one billion streams on Spotify alone.
Katy Perry has only one song that can point to the same, «Dark Horse».
Eilish, for her part, has several such, even two that have surpassed two billion Spotify plays.
(For the record: Perry had her biggest hits before streaming and Spotify became internationally dominant, and the comparison isn’t entirely mathematically fair in that respect.)
Contact Billie
In the video, Katy Perry widens her eyes after talking about the opportunity she allegedly missed.
– Big mistake, she says with a grimace.
– Other blunder. Don’t let this leak online, laughs Perry, and the audience laughs with her.
Billie Eilish has not commented on the case at the time of writing.
However, there should be a good atmosphere between Perry and Eilish now.
In the Eilish documentary “The World’s A Little Blurry” from 2021, they can be seen meeting backstage at the Coachella festival.
In the sequence, Perry’s then fiancé, now husband, Orlando Bloom is also present – without Eilish recognizing him immediately.
– My fiance, who doesn’t really listen to modern music, just plays you in the car all the time, says Perry to Eilish there.
Perry also says that she is proud of Eilish, and leaves the door wide open:
– I just want to say, this is going to be wild for ten years. If at any point you need someone to talk to… because it’s a strange journey.
– I know you know, replies Eilish.
The two American stars also have in common that – while they were at the height of their popularity – they both praised and later met the Norwegian pop star Aurora Aksnes.
