Barbie not only brought us a story of empowerment but also songs that are now part of our life soundtracks, such as “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish. The song touched the hearts of more than one of us, and we identified with it much more than we would like to admit.
The truth is that for Billie Eilish it was also a hard blow at the time of writing it, the proof that not everything is rosy for an artist. Darkness invades her as much as it does us.
The Story Behind Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”
“What Was I Made For?” was made specifically to be part of the soundtrack of Barbie, and only a few days after its release it has become a massive hit. Billie revealed that her creative process was very complicated, as she was in the middle of a blockage that made her doubt if the music was the right path to follow.
Through Apple Music, Billie revealed that Finneas, her brother, was the one who gave her the news about being part of Barbie, a project that seemed crazy to her because of the little creativity they were having.
“At some point late last year, Finneas said to me, ‘Would you like to do a song for ‘Barbie,’ and I thought, ‘but where is he getting this from now? Why did you come up with that?’ He replied, ‘I was talking to Mark and Greta, and it just came up,'” the singer revealed. She also mentioned that hours later she was already on a call with the director.
Billie Eilish and Barbie Turned Out to Be Very Much Alike
Greta explained to the musicians what the story of Barbie was about and the theme they expected within the song; however, the siblings were going through a creative block. After some hours working, the first notes emerged, then starred the melancholic words: “I used to know, but I’m not sure now, What I was made for…”
And, yes, ouch… the question we’ve asked ourselves more times than we’d like. Initially, the musicians thought they weren’t appropriate words to represent Barbie, even though they weren’t seeing from the doll’s perspective; however, after a few days, Billie realized that those thoughts that were invading her were the same ones she felt.
“Then for the next couple of days, I would listen to it and think ‘Girl, how did you do this?’ I honestly don’t want this to sound in conceited way at all, but I did this as if I was writing for myself, but I don’t know, it’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever experienced in my life. The next week I was putting it in the car all day for everybody, and I was thinking, ‘This is exactly how I feel, and I didn’t even want to say it.’ It was really the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life because I was really writing about myself, but I was thinking about myself from a third person, and at the same time, I was thinking about myself objectively, which also made me feel really connected to it,” the songwriter explained.
Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” Video
For the music video, Billie dressed up as a doll and, sits at a desk that takes us back to our childhood, combing her hair in the ponytail of the first Babie that was released, she represented the same feelings she wanted to leave in her song and that identify both her and the doll during the tape… and us.
The song talked about Barbie, but also Billie, that’s why we see doll dresses as replicas of some of the singer’s most iconic outfits. Nothing is a coincidence, and Barbie came to embrace Billie Eilish, or Billie Eilish to Barbie, the proof that the pink world is not always pink.
This story was written in Spanish by Kate Nateras in Cultura Colectiva
