Yahoo News Billie Eilish says she 'couldn't have been less inspired' creatively before writing “Barbie” song
Billie Eilish has revealed that she had to dig deeper than Weird Barbie's basement (that smells like soup) to find the creative inspiration before writing her epic Barbie soundtrack song, "What Was I Made For?"
"We wrote it in a period of time where we couldn't have been less inspired and less creative," the 21-year-old singer-songwriter told Allure of penning the tune for the Greta Gerwig–directed blockbuster with her brother and longtime collaborator Finneas O'Connell. "That day we were making stuff, and were like, 'We've lost it. Why are we even doing this?' And then those first chords happened, and 'I used to float / Now I just fall down' came out, and the song wrote itself."
Albert L. Ortega/Getty; Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures Billie Eilish; Margot Robbie
Eilish said the pair wrote the opening lines "in the first 10 minutes" of crafting the song, with inspiration from their own experience to accompany the journey of self-discovery Margot Robbie's Barbie embarks on in the movie.
"We wrote most of the song without thinking about ourselves and our own lives, but thinking about this character we were inspired by," Eilish said. "A couple of days went by, and I realized it was about me. It's everything I feel. And it's not just me — everyone feels like that, eventually."
The song has garnered significant acclaim since its release as part of the star-studded Barbie soundtrack, which was partially curated and produced by Mark Ronson and also includes tracks by Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Lizzo, and Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken in the movie.
"What Was I Made For?" has been hailed as a standout addition to the film, with many awards pundits considering it a front-runner for the Best Original Song Oscar — an award Eilish and O'Connell won for writing the title track of the James Bond film No Time to Die in 2022.
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