Billie Eilish is the latest star to lend her voice to the ever-expanding #FreeBritney movement. In an interview with Vogue Australia, Eilish weighed in on the high price of fame for young women in the music industry, a subject she has plenty of experience with. In a section of her cover story focused on the question of what fame does to a person — specifically a bold, clever teen who might be vulnerable to outside influence steering them in unknown directions — Eilish, 19, mused about the high price of fame.
“It’s really, really horrible what a lot of young women have gone through—I mean, to this day,” Eilish tells the writer during a discussion about Britney Spears, who has gotten waves of support recently as she battles to remove herself from the constricting confines of a conservatorship she’s been under for 13 years.
“I didn’t have a team that wanted to f–k me over—which is really kind of rare, which [itself] is pretty f–ked up,” she added. “All I have to be is just grateful that I happened to have a good group of people around me that … didn’t want to just take advantage of me and do what people have done in the past.”
On Friday (July 16), Spears, 39, took to social media to share a seething message aimed at loved ones publicly showing their support amid her ongoing conservatorship battle who previously weren’t there when she needed their help.“There’s nothing worse than when the people closest to you who never showed up for you post things in regard to your situation whatever it may be and speak righteously for support … there’s nothing worse than that !!!!” Spears began the lengthy note on Instagram.
“How dare the people you love the most say anything at all,” she continued. “Did they even put a hand out to even lift me up at the TIME !!!??? How dare you make it public that NOW you CARE … did you put your hand out when I was drowning ???? Again … NO.” Earlier in the week, Spears scored a major legal victory when L.A. County Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny ruled that she can hire her own lawyer in her pursuit of ending the conservatorship that has controlled her life and career for the last 13 years. And for the first time, the singer used the viral hashtag-turned-movement “#FreeBritney” in celebration.
And while Spears said over the weekend that she has no plans to return to the stage anytime soon, Eilish is gearing up for the anticipated release of her sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, which is due out on July 30.
