Bad Guy girl Billie Eilish beats the odds in outstanding Grammy haul

At just 18, Billie Eilish has swept the 62nd annual Grammy Awards to take home five awards from six nominations.

Billie Eilish accepts the Best New Artist award onstage during the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Picture: Getty Images

The anointing of Billie Eilish as one of the brightest lights in global pop music is complete after the 18-year-old American singer-songwriter swept the 62nd annual Grammy Awards to take home five awards from six nominations.

Eilish won both record of the year and song of the year for Bad Guy, while her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was named album of the year and best pop vocal album. The musician — who performed her song When the Party’s Over during the event while accompanied by her ­brother, Finneas, on piano — was also named best new talent.

The awards came after Bad Guy also topped Triple J’s Hottest 100 music poll on the weekend.

“Mainly I think the fans deserve everything,” Eilish said at Grammys. “They’ve not been talked about enough tonight, and they’re the only reason any of us are here at all. To all the other artists in this category: I love you all. I know your fans are hardcore, and they’re going to fight for you and talk shit about me for years because of this. I love all fandoms.”

Held at Kobe Bryant’s home court of the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, the ceremony was deeply affected by news of the death of the retired basketball player a few hours before show time. Two of Bryant’s LA Lakers jerseys were hung in the rafters above the audience, while many artists paid tribute to him in their speeches or included his playing number of 24 in their performances.

Australian nominees Flume and Rufus Du Sol were unsucc­essful in the electronic music categories but brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone took home Grammys. The Sydney-born, Nashville-based duo — who perform as For King & Country — won best contemporary Christian music performance or song for a collaboration with Dolly Parton named God Only Knows and best contemporary Christian music album award for Burn the Ships.

Eilish’s Grammy sweep contained another echo of recent history for Australian audiences, as the success of Bad Guy presented an exceedingly rare case of the tastes of the Recording Academy voting membership — which tends to skew older and male — lining up with that of younger Australian listeners.