Yahoo News Lady Gaga offers to be mentor to Billie Eilish
Pop icon Lady Gaga has revealed she offered to be a mentor to new kid on the block Billie Eilish, saying she never had an older female in the industry to look up to.
Eilish, aged 18, burst onto the music scene last year and scooped a whopping five Grammy Awards at this year’s ceremony.
Gaga had a similarly meteoric rise to stardom 10 years earlier with her first single Just Dance, but the Poker Face star has said there was a lack of female stars for her to seek advice from.
Talking to Apple Music, Gaga said: “Billie swept a whole bunch of awards so I said, ‘Let’s send some flowers’.
“For me, it’s healing because it hurt me that I didn’t get that. I’m going to be that for someone else.
“I’ve had a harder time with older women in terms of having a female mentor. Other than Celine Dion and Carole King, it’s proven difficult to have someone who would show me the way.
“So I really hope that young female artists – or young artists of any gender identity or sexual identity – will know that I am rooting for them.
“This idea that we’re rooting for each other, cheering each other on, is so important.”
She told Zane Lowe last month: “I love Billie Eilish. I love all these younger artists. I’m there for you. I love you. I am not in competition with anyone. I want everyone to win. I’m support.”
The star also revealed music legend Elton John has been a mentor throughout her own career.
Read more: Billie Eilish reveals online trolls left her suicidal
She said: “Elton’s been my mentor for a long time. He’s always challenged me to keep my head above water and he knows when I’m down.
“He knows because I hide, because I never want anyone to see me when I’m like that. Elton’s always challenged me to take care of my artistry and to take care of myself, and I really honour that about him.
“He is so uniquely special.”
