Pandora Predictions: Billie Eilish, Two Other Young Female Singers Climb Fast
In this round of Pandora Predictions, youth reigns supreme as we look at the TV-fueled rise of Bill Eilish, big moves by Netherlands native Sophie Francis, and a social media boost for british crooner Connie Talbot.
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Guest post by Emily Blake of Next Big Sound
On this week’s Pandora Predictions Chart, we have not one but three child prodigies — 16–year-old with a viral hit under her IKEA-bag belt and one more on the way, a promising Dutch DJ who just graduated high school, and a singer-songwriter who got her start at 7. Feeling unaccomplished yet? No? Well, you will.
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish was just 15 when she posted a song called “Ocean Eyes” to SoundCloud last year. The song quickly spread to listeners across the globe, including British DJ Zane Lowe, who later premiered her followup single “Six Feet Under.” By the end of the summer, she was seeing write-ups in the likes of Vogue calling her “Pop’s next it girl.” And by the end of the years he had signed herself a shiny new deal with Interscope Records.
The Los Angeles native has managed to keep that momentum going through 2017, with her single “Bored” being included on the soundtrack for Nextflix’s viral teen drama 13 Reasons Why. (In case you haven’t heard, TV can be a launching pad for up-and-coming artists — especially when the show has the reach of 13 Reasons Why.) Now, she has hit another sweet spot with “Bellyache,” in which she puts herself in the mind of a serial killer who has murdered both her lover and her friends. You know, typical 16-year-old stuff.
In the three months since releasing “Bellyache,” Eilish has gained over 31,000 fans on Facebook — up 300% from the previous three months. On Pandora, she’s seen a very positive sign of growth: While her artist station adds and track station adds were usually about equal around the release of “Ocean Eyes,” her artist adds have well surpassed track station adds. In the past 30 days, her number of artist adds has been more than double her number of track adds, a good indicator that Billie Eilish is not another case of the one-hit wonder. This week, Eilish jumps 11 spots to #7.
Sophie Francis
Meanwhile, in the EDM hotbed of the Netherlands, 18-year-old Sophie Francis not only just graduated from high school — hartelijk gefeliciteerd! — but is making big moves in the DJ world. Most recently, she’s made quite a bit of noise with recent singles “Without You” and “Lovedrunk,” her first releases on leading Dutch dance label Spinnin’ Records.
Francis debuts on the Predictions Chart this week at #19 after seeing growth in reach and engagement across a number of platforms. In terms of reach, Francis has been growing the quickest on Twitter and Facebook, where she’s added over 10,000 followers and around 22,000 new fans in the past month — up from the previous month’s total of around 900 Twitter followers and 13,000 Facebook fans. She’s also seen an average of about 40,000 talking about this daily over the past month. (Facebook defines “Talking About This” as “the number of people who are ‘engaged’ and interacting with that Facebook Page.”
Connie Talbot
British singer Connie Talbot has been in the game almost 10 years now… and she’s 16. Back in 2007, the 7-year-old reached the final round of Britain’s Got Talent, and from there and went on to release several albums and EPs.
Talbot has seen significant growth on Twitter over the past month following the release of her latest track“Good to Me.” This month compared to last month, she saw a 6,000% increase in followers. This week, things are picking up for her on both Pandora and Facebook. She debuts this week at #18 after seeing a 130% lift in artist station adds and a 150% lift in Facebook page likes week-on-week.
Elsewhere on the Predictions Chart, Grime rapper J Hus makes his way form #7 to #2 this week after the unleashing his debut album, Common Sense. South African native Alice Phoebe Lou also makes a big jump — from #10 to #5 — and also enjoys a 65% week-on-week lift in Pandora artist station adds. And Toronto singer Kai Exos debuts at #14 after releasing his new song “Fire & Brew.”
