Katy Perry Regrets Turning Down Working With Billie Eilish

Katy Perry has revealed that she let a massive opportunity pass through her fingers. Although, at the time, she didn't know what a big mistake it would be.

At a 102.7 KIIS FM event, the Teenage Dream singer admitted that she first thought Billie Eilish was boring and turned down the opportunity to work with her. Of course, receiving a random video of a young singer mightn't entice a global superstar to take notice, but this was one of those times when you'd want to pay attention. 

In a video captured on TikTok, Perry told the audience about an email she received that said, "Hey, check out this new artist. I’d really like us to work with her because she was working with me for Unsub [Records]."

At the time, Eilish wasn't the Grammy award-winning, Hottest 100-winning music sensation she is today. Perry admitted, "It was a song called Ocean Eyes, and it was just a blonde girl. And I was like, ‘Meh, boring.’" She said it was a "big mistake, huge mistake" to pass up the offer.

Ocean Eyes was an early hit for Eilish and catapulted her to global fame. The song is 21x Platinum in seven countries and has been covered by Alicia Keys, Machine Gun Kelly and Shamir.

@1027kiisfm

#KatyPerry tells the story of first hearing BillieEilish’s Ocean Eyes! 😱 #oceaneyes #oceaneyesbillieeilish #katyperryfan #losangeles

♬ original sound - 102.7 KIIS FM

A few months ago, Gorillaz and Blur frontman Damon Albarn teased a potential collaboration with Eilish that could be “babbling brook folk or dark satanic metal”. 

The singer confirmed that the two had been trying to work together. Speaking with Apple Music 1, he confirmed that a studio collab “will” happen at some stage; it’s just a matter of when due to their respective schedules being so hectic.

“Yeah, I think we keep trying to do it. It’s just a case of schedules,” he said.

Last April, Albarn made an appearance during Eilish’s Coachella headline set, performing Gorillaz’s Feel Good Inc. (with De La Soul) and Eilish’s Getting Older together.

When introducing Albarn, Eilish told the crowd: “This man changed my life in a lot of ways and changed my complete view of what music could be, and what art could be, and what creation could be.

“My first favourite band ever was The Good, The Bad & The Queen when I was six, and Blur changed the world, and Gorillaz changed the world, and this man is literally a genius, and that’s that.”