Finneas has responded to claims that his and Billie Eilish’s success is down to their parents’ “connections”.
The pop star and her producer brother are the children of Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, who are described in Finneas’ Wikipedia entry as an actress and screenwriter and an actor.
In a now-deleted tweet, one Twitter user suggested those occupations gave the siblings industry connections that had helped to catapult them to success. Finneas – a solo musician in his own right – responded, setting people straight on their background.
“During my life time, our parents were never able to fully financially support us off of their work as actors,” he wrote. “Our dad worked 12 hour days 7 days a week as a construction worker for Mattel and our mom was a teacher. Our parents gave us love but knew no one in the record industry.”
During my life time, our parents were never able to fully financially support us off of their work as actors. Our dad worked 12 hour days 7 days a week as a construction worker for Mattel and our mom was a teacher. Our parents gave us love but knew no one in the record industry https://t.co/DuC2UjymQX
— FINNEAS (@finneas) February 24, 2020
He continued to say that he had paid off their mortgage in 2019 and that his sister paid them both salaries to tour with them, even “though they have told us many times they would work for us for free”.
Anyone who saw us tour in 2019 knows our dad insists on sweeping the stage each night before we perform
— FINNEAS (@finneas) February 24, 2020
“Anyone who saw us tour in 2019 knows our dad insists on sweeping the stage each night before we perform,” he added.
Meanwhile, Eilish scored the biggest opening week of all time for a Bond theme when ‘No Time To Die’ hit Number One on the Official UK Singles Chart last week (February 21).
The song, which was co-written and produced by Eilish and Finneas, racked up 90,000 chart sales across the past seven days including 10.6 million streams.
The pair performed the track live for the first time at last week’s BRIT Awards (February 18), where Eilish also collected the award for Best International Female.
