Since becoming a massive pop star, Billie Eilish and her brother/songwriting partner Finneas O’Connell have been branching out to write music for film, and they’ve had some incredible success with it thus far. Their first time around the bend, they had the opportunity to write the James Bond theme for No Time To Die, and it led to the pair taking to the Oscar stage to accept recognition for Best Original Song. Almost two years later, the duo are likely major contenders for the Oscars again for writing “What Was I Made For?” for the Barbie movie, and Billie Eilish is sharing how the song came to be.
How is a hit song as massive as “What Was I Made For?” even crafted? Since Eilish surprised fans in July of the song’s existence, the track has been everywhere this year, particularly as the soundtrack to a host of TikTok videos about womanhood since Barbie’s massive release. Eilish said this about the making of the song:
Billie EIlish and Finneas O’Connell were asked to screen Barbie amidst writer/director Greta Gerwig crafting the soundtrack for the film that would go on to create a host of massive hits from the likes of Dua Lipa, Nikki Minaj and Ryan Gosling, of course. The songwriters received the potential assignment in January as they were also trying to get creative in the studio again for the upcoming followup to Billie EIlish’s second studio album, Happier Than Ever. As Eilish continued:
What started as a rather uninspiring day for Billie Eilish took a turn when her brother suggested they try to pivot to Barbie. Here’s what happened next:
Eilish spoke about how she wrote “What Was I Made For?”, which has already been streamed over 450 million times on Spotify and has remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for 17 consecutive weeks (currently holding the 28th spot), while taking part in a roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter. Eilish was joined by Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Julia Michaels, Jon Baptiste and Cynthia Erivo. Eilish also said this:
When it comes to songs written for all the 2023 new movie releases, it certainly feels like “What I Was Made For?” could go down in history as one of the most (if not the most memorable. We’ll have to see how Billie Eilish’s Barbie does as awards season begins to take flight with fall movie season.
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