Billie Eilish Is Down to Collaborate With Rihanna: ‘She’s Literally My Idol’
RiRi previously said she wanted to work with the "Birds of a Feather" singer.
Billie Eilish performs onstage during Billie Eilish HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR Kick Off at Videotron Centre on Sept. 29, 2024 in Quebec City, Quebec
Rihanna recently said that she wants to collaborate with Billie Eilish — and according to the 22-year-old pop star, she’s waiting by the phone for the Fenty mogul’s call.
In a new cover story interview with Complex published Thursday (Dec. 5), Eilish gushed about the moment RiRi shouted her out in October — “If I could only do a song with Billie Eilish, she’s so good,” the superstar said at the time — which the two-time Oscar winner said she “literally thought … was AI.”
“I’ve never met Rihanna,” Eilish continued to the publication. “She’s literally my idol. She’s the greatest of all time. She’s my complete dream collab.”
“I don’t even answer that question when people are like, ‘Who would you like to collab with?'” she added. “But I always think Rihanna. I’m not going to say that, though! Why would I say that?! It’s not real. I would think, like, ‘She probably doesn’t even like me.’ I’ve never heard from her, and I’ve never had any interaction with her, so why would I have ever even thought about it?”
When the “Umbrella” singer first sang Eilish’s praises, the latter simply wrote in disbelief on Instagram Stories, “what in the absolute f–k.”
A few weeks later, the “Birds of a Feather” artist says she finds the whole thing funny. “I was like, ‘Well, b—h, I’ve been sitting here this whole time!'” Eilish told Complex, laughing. “What the f–k is she even talking about? Like, as if I’ve been saying, ‘No.’ Rihanna! Riri!? I’ll literally do anything you want. That’s insane.”
The interview comes about six months after Eilish released her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The star — who is currently on tour in support of the LP — also recently sat down with CBS News Sunday Morning and spoke about how she came into her own as a songwriter while working on the project with her older brother and producer, Finneas.
“My passion has never been songwriting,” she said in a video snippet from the interview airing Dec. 8. “My passion is music, and performing, and singing. And songwriting is something that I do so that I can then sing it and perform it … I did way more writing on this album than anything ever.”
Watch the clip from the upcoming episode of CBS Sunday Morning below.
