Tom Odell learns a lesson from Billie Eilish. Image credit: Getty Images.
(The Post News) – Even top-tier performers have their off days and Tom Odell considers his 2016 gig at Hollywood Forever Cemetery one of them. “I left that show feeling really frustrated,” Odell says. “It didn’t go the way I’d hoped, and I don’t even think the venue was full.”
But among the scattered crowd that night sat 18-year-old Finneas O’Connell and his younger sister, Billie Eilish, two unknown musicians who had only recently uploaded their first demo to SoundCloud. While Odell wrote the show off as a flop, it ended up leaving a lasting impression on the siblings and changed the course of their lives.
“I was already a fan,” Finneas recalled during his solo UK show in Manchester earlier this year. “But watching that performance his band, his songs it made me decide to release music under my own name.”
Odell, who happened to be in the crowd that night, was stunned to hear it.
“It really moved me,” he says. “My career hasn’t always been smooth. That night felt like a failure to me. But it reminded me that even on days when you feel like you have nothing to give, you never know who might be listening or how you might be impacting them.”
Billie Eilish and Finneas never forgot that moment. Earlier this summer, Eilish invited Odell to open the European leg of her world tour. They’ve also announced plans for more joint shows in 2027.
The opportunity comes at a high point in Odell’s career his most anticipated peak in years.
After being discovered by Lily Allen, the Chichester-born singer soared to fame with his debut album, powered by the aching ballad “Another Love”. That single became one of the most-streamed tracks in history, racking up more than 3 billion Spotify streams.
But the success was followed by a long, quiet slump. Though Odell continued releasing albums and touring, his work only resonated with his loyal fanbase and failed to reach the mainstream again.
That changed in 2021 when he fulfilled his record deal with Sony Music and chose to go independent. He called the move “liberating,” having spent years “struggling to release the music I actually wanted to make.”
Freed from label pressures, Odell shifted toward a darker, more introspective sound. His deeply personal lyrics resonated on TikTok, where a snippet from the title track of his sixth album, “Black Friday,” went viral. That track alone accumulated 700 million streams in 2024, marking his biggest success since his debut.
Ironically, Odell never expected the song to connect the way it did.
“It wasn’t even supposed to be the lead single,” he admits. “But in the weird and wonderful world of TikTok, one line really struck a chord with people.”
That line “I want a better body, I want better skin / I wanna be perfect like all your other friends” later featured in the popular teen drama Heartstopper, playing during a scene where a main character is admitted to an eating disorder clinic.
Tom Odell says the response was overwhelming.
“When I wrote that song, I was in a really dark place,” he says. “I’m a vulnerable person, and sometimes it’s just hard to be alive. Then a year later, I’m on stage and the entire audience is singing it back to me, saying, ‘We feel the same way.’ It’s the most connected I’ve ever felt to a crowd.”
The success of Black Friday gave Odell the creative freedom to dive into his next project: A Wonderful Life, his seventh studio album.
Unlike the previous record which he recorded in his small London studio, complete with audible piano pedal creaks this one was made in the iconic Studio One at RAK Studios, where legends like Radiohead and The Pogues once recorded.
But don’t let the upgraded setting or his recent marriage to sculptor Georgina Somerville (in November 2023) fool you into thinking Odell has turned to writing cheerful love songs. If anything, A Wonderful Life is steeped in anxiety and emotional ambiguity.
The album’s titles include “Can We Just Go Home Now?” and “Why Do I Always Want the Things That I Can’t Have?” both questions that reflect his ongoing emotional introspection. Throughout the record, Odell undercuts moments of romance with references to mortality and decay.
He describes the album as the “truest reflection” of his mental state between January and October last year.
“Personally and professionally, I felt on top of the world,” he explains. “But the world itself felt like it was falling apart.”
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