Billie duPage is having her moment! Her song Fake Friends, inspired by her own challenging high school experience, has become her very first hit on the Billboard Hot 100. She says, “A lot of little girls are writing to me, saying that it’s liberating to listen to this song—and it’s liberating to me too.” The Quebec-born singer emphasizes the importance of writing about things that are both relatable and personal to her.
Now, duPage finds herself in good company alongside fellow Québécois artists Céline Dion and Charlotte Cardin. All three singers have recorded songs in both French and English that have become simultaneous hits on both charts. To her, this is both exciting and surreal. She says, “It’s pretty crazy for me cause like, I still go to school and I’m like a 20-year-old normal girl. So, to me when somebody tells me this, I’m like, ‘Pinch me, please!’”
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Her current reality is a balance between music and school. She’s attending Concordia University, where she studies communications. There, she is surrounded by real friends and professors who she describes as ‘supportive.’ “Going to school also gives me inspiration,” she shares. “I mean, I’m not going to stay in my house and wait for inspiration to come and write songs, you know?”
One of her favorite hobbies is collecting vinyl, which she calls “the original sound of music.” A glance around her room reveals records by Elton John and Michael Jackson on display. But it’s her Billie Holiday album that she considers her most prized possession. “My parents loved her, and they were like, ‘Our daughter’s going to be a star, so we want to name her after her.’”
Such a perfect prediction!
