“Barbie” and Billie Eilish Have a Big Night at the Grammys
While the Grammy’s is music’s big night, the film world can still have a rather large part to play in the proceedings, and that was certainly true for last night’s 2024 awards ceremony. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie came into the Grammys with a whopping 11 nominations and took home three.
Two of those wins belonged to Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, whose beautiful Barbie tune “What Was I Made For?” won Song of the Year, besting Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Lana Del Rey’s “A&W,” Jon Batiste’s “Butterfly,” Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” (another Barbie song), Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” SZA’s “Kill Bill” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire.”
Eilish made sure to spread the love to Gerwig when she accepted the award, praising her for “making the best movie of the year.” When we spoke to hit makers Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt about crafting the Barbie soundtrack, they recalled how, for Eilish’s song, they simply provided the string arrangement, and she and her brother Finneas did the rest. “As soon as we heard the first demo from Billy [Eilish], we were like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe she watched twenty-five minutes of the film and cut right to the heart of Barbie’s experience.’”
After their Grammy win, Eilish told reporters that she and Finneas had struggled with their songwriting before they were approached to work on Barbie.
“We had been working three days a week and not coming up with stuff, and even if we were coming up with stuff, it just didn’t feel right, didn’t feel good, didn’t feel real,” Eilish said. “And I got really worried, I got nervous, I felt like it was going to be over a little bit. I was in a real dark place, really, really dark place. It’s kind of hard to think back to it, but Greta came to us, and she offered us this life-changing thing we didn’t really realize was going to be life-changing like that, and we wrote [‘What Was I Made For?’] 24 hours after we saw the movie.”
“What Was I Made For” also won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media, topping three other Barbie tunes—Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World.” The category was rounded out by Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Finally, Barbie the Album won the Grammy for Best Complication Soundtrack for Visual Media, topping Daisy Jones & the Six, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3: Awesome Mix, Vol. 3, and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
For more on Barbie, check out these stories:
“Barbie” Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran Unpacks That Eye-Popping Wardrobe
Greta Gerwig Reveals “Barbie” Joys, Anxieties, and Teases Next Project
“Barbie” Surpasses “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and is Now Available on Streaming
Featured image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 04: Billie Eilish, winner of the “Best Song Written for Visual Media” and “Song of the Year” awards for “What Was I Made For?”, poses in the press room at the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 04, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
