When Billie Eilish announced that she would be recording a song for Barbie: The Album, we anticipated a dance anthem, evocative of Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice’s Barbie World or Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night.
A creative nonconformist, Billie ventured down a more vulnerable path with What Was I Made For?, a personal piano ballad of an entirely different genre. The songstress discussed the multifaceted meaning behind her Barbie song on Apple Music’s The Zane Lowe Interview Series last Thursday.
What’s the story behind Billie Eilish’s piano ballad for Barbie?
Rather than creating another upbeat record a la I’m a Barbie Girl, Billie drew inspiration directly from Barbie’s slogan which seems to go unnoticed, “You can be anything.” Her new ballad What Was I Made For? explores the concept of purpose when one feels stuck in a lackluster rut of uncertainty.
Via @billieeilish on Instagram
Billie sings the entire track in her falsetto register, creating a profoundly emotional ambiance marked by themes of human fragility. The piano ballad is elevated with resonant violin strings, but the song’s true crescendo lies in the artist’s deeply personal and vulnerable lyrics. “I used to float,” sings Billie, “now I just fall down.”
Via @billieeilish on Instagram
You’d be surprised to know that, going into the studio, Billie never intended to create something personal. She and her brother/long-time collaborator Finneas aimed to create a track in the third-person, purely about Barbie’s character. Besides, the duo was struggling with intense writer’s block at the time, feeling as though their creative juices had somewhat ceased to flow…
Via @billieeilish on Instagram
But when Billie revisited her studio recordings later on, it hit her how unintentionally introspective and autobiographical the song truly was. “This is exactly how I feel and I didn’t even mean to be saying it,” says Billie, “I was writing about myself but thinking about myself in the third person.”
Via @billieeilish on Instagram
Billie went on to explain that What Was I Made for? would *never* have been written without the guidelines inherent to making music for a film. “Through this last winter, both Finneas and I have been incredibly uninspired,” she tells Zane, “and this was the first song we’ve written in a minute.” The artist added that writing songs for films is what she and Finneas feel they were made for (see what we did there?).
This comes as no surprise to us considering the siblings’ Oscar-winning song No Time To Die, recorded for the iconic James Bond film empire.
Via Youtube
Finneas celebrated the Barbie ballad in an Instagram post, sharing, “Making this song was one of my favorite writing experiences ever. All my love to Greta, Mark and everyone we worked with who brought this to life. I feel so grateful.”
Billie Eilish’s What Was I made For? is reminiscent of her signature ballads, namely everything i wanted, Getting Older, and my future. Her collaboration with Barbie represents a *full-circle moment* for the international superstar: When Billie was a little girl, her father worked as a carpenter for Mattel, building dreamy Barbie dollhouses for his daughter.
Via @billieeilish on Instagram
You can listen to Billie’s full interview with Zane Lowe here for more on the What Was I Made For? music video, directed by Billie herself.