Billie Eilish calls out YouTuber pretending to be her in public for clout

31 January 2020, 12:12

By Sam Prance

YouTubers have been dressing up as Billie Eilish and pranking strangers in an attempt to create viral videos.

Billie Eilish has dragged YouTubers who are pretending to be her in public and filming it for attention, subscribers and views.

It's no secret that Billie Eilish has a signature look. Ever since the 18-year-old first rose to fame, she's become known for her baggy clothes, long nails and colourful hair. Billie also loves neon green, and since last summer she's rocked black hair with fluorescent green roots. In fact, her style is so recognisable that she was one of the most popular Halloween costumes in 2019.

READ MORE: Billie Eilish says Ariana Grande deserved to win instead of her in Grammys speech

Thanks to Billie's aesthetic, it's now become extremely popular for YouTubers to dress up as her and prank people in public by pretending to be her and filming it in an attempt to create viral videos. The YouTubers hire fake bodyguards and limos in a bid to attract attention and get Billie fans to swarm around them.

Now, Billie has revealed that she hates it.

Last night (Jan 30), Billie took to Instagram to post a photo of a YouTuber pretending to be her with a fake security team and called her out for it. She wrote: "please stop doing this shit," and then explained: "it is not safe for you and it is mean to the people who don't know any better." She ended the Instagram story, stating: "you make me look bad".

Billie then shared screenshots of the endless search results for Billie Eilish pranks on YouTube with the caption: "please stop". She also reposted the original photo she shared of the YouTuber pretending to be her. Billie wrote: "also soooo disrespectful that you'd go out pretending to be me wearing this". And I oop!

It turns out that the girl dressing as Billie is an acrobat who YouTuber Jordan Matter hired for a prank video. Following Billie's comments, Jordan took to Instagram to write: "Hello everyone. You’ve been commenting on the video shoot I did yesterday, and I’d like to respond. I gathered a crowd and had an acrobat pretending to be Billie do a huge cheer flip, which revealed it was not Billie."

He then added: "I had absolutely no intention of disrespecting Billie. I’m a big fan, like everyone else. I’ve never done a celebrity impersonation video before, but they’re pretty common so I thought it would be fun to add my own acrobatic twist. I felt it was completely harmless since at no time in the video are we pretending that she is actually Billie."

Jordan continued: "I have reached out directly to Billie and Maggie and apologized, and I will not post the video without their permission. I hope this clarifies everything."

View this post on Instagram

Hello everyone. You’ve been commenting on the video shoot I did yesterday, and I’d like to respond. I gathered a crowd and had an acrobat pretending to be Billie do a huge cheer flip, which revealed it was not Billie. I had absolutely no intention of disrespecting Billie. I’m a big fan, like everyone else. I’ve never done a celebrity impersonation video before, but they’re pretty common so I thought it would be fun to add my own acrobatic twist. I felt it was completely harmless since at no time in the video are we pretending that she is actually Billie. I have reached out directly to Billie and Maggie and apologized, and I will not post the video without their permission. I hope this clarifies everything.

A post shared by Jordan Matter (@jordanmatter) on Jan 30, 2020 at 3:37pm PST

Billie isn't the only star tired of people pretending to be her for clout. Ariana Grande recently complained about people pretending to be on her TikTok.

What do you think? Should YouTubers stop pretending to Billie?