Last week, a clip of Billie Eilish's interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live went viral on Twitter for some not-so-great reasons.
During the interview — as Kimmel tested her on her '80s knowledge — Eilish revealed she had never heard of Van Halen. It's safe to say some people online were decidedly not OK with this.
Billie Eilish didn't know who Van Halen was, I'm sobbing.
Plenty of people immediately jumped to Eilish's defence, saying that a 17-year-old has no reason to know about a band that was most popular 20 years before she was born.
Who cares if a teenager doesn’t know the music you knew when you were a teen? Introduce them! Y’all didn’t come onto this earth knowing all the stuff you know now either. Doesn’t matter when they meet the good stuff. Shut up and play it for them. #VanHalen #BillieEilish
I say this as a superfan: Van Halen has given Billie Eilish no reason to know who they are. They've done very little during her lifetime. Don't complain about other people's musical experience being different. Instead, share -- give people a reason to love what you love. 🎧
While others took issue with Kimmel for trying to make Eilish "look stupid".
why are older men literally obsessed with making young girls look stupid https://t.co/IRj4Df242R
Even Eilish herself said during the interview that Kimmel was making her "look so dumb" because she didn't know the answer to any of his questions.
And she seemed to refer to the whole drama during an appearance at Variety's Hitmakers event this past Saturday.
Taking to the stage to accept her award for Hitmaker of the Year, Eilish began her speech by thanking the outlet for not making her "look stupid".
"Thank you so much, Variety — thank you for not making me look stupid like everybody else wants to do on TV," she said. "Love that."
She didn't mention the talk show host by name, but people at the event thought she was talking about the Kimmel–Van Halen situation.
Billie Eilish references the Jimmy Kimmel/Van Halen kerfuffle while picking up her Variety Hitmakers honor: “Thank you for not making me look stupid, like everybody else wants to do on TV”
She concluded her speech by encouraging the music executives, managers, and labels in the room to listen to their artists' creative ideas:
Please listen to your artists, even if they have a stupid idea at least hear them out. It might not be stupid, so just listen to people and be open-minded and trust, and don’t think because it’s not like everything else doesn’t mean it’s bad.”
You can watch Eilish's full acceptance speech here:
