Katy Perry has revealed she made the “huge mistake” of declining to work with Billie Eilish because she thought her first song “Ocean Eyes” was boring.
Perry appeared to be speaking to an audience in a TikTok video shared by Los Angeles radio station 102.7 KIIS FM on Friday when she shared a story about hearing Eilish’s music for the first time, according to People. The “Roar” singer stated that she received an email about a new artist for Perry’s record label Unsub Records.
“It was a song called ‘Ocean Eyes’ and it was just a blonde girl and I was like ‘Meh, boring.'” Perry said, widening her eyes. “Big mistake. Huge mistake.”
She also joked, “Don’t let this hit the internet.”
Eilish rose to fame in 2015 when she released “Ocean Eyes” which was written and produced by her brother Finneas O’Connell, and has since become one of the biggest names in the industry, winning seven Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award and Oscar for Best Original Song.
There is no ill will between the pair.
Perry and Eilish are friends, as evidenced by her documentary “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry,” which was released in 2021.
In the doc, Perry introduced the “Bad Guy” singer to her husband, actor Orlando Bloom — but Eilish had no clue who he was at first glance.
“My fiancé who doesn’t listen to modern music, he’ll only play you in the car all the time,” Perry told Eilish in the clip.
Bloom then hugged Eilish and said, “I’m so proud of you.”
“Congrats, I’m so proud of you,” added Perry before giving some sweet advice. “I wanted to say, this is going to be wild for 10 years. If you ever wanna talk… ’cause it’s a weird ride.”
Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom e a cantora Billie Eilish nos bastidores do festival #Coachella pic.twitter.com/qyfXqzpKSQ
— Portal Katy Perry (@portalkatyperry) April 15, 2019
After the couple had left, Eilish asked her brother Finneas who Bloom was before Finneas reminded her of Bloom’s roles, particularly his Pirates of the Caribbean character Will Turner.
That guy?! That was him?!” she said. “No way! Bring him back. I want to meet him again. He kissed me on the cheek. I did not know that was him. I thought that was just some dude Katy Perry met.”
Luckily for her, Bloom returned and gave her another hug — one she appreciated more the second time around.
