A stark contrast from the rest of the Barbie soundtrack, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For” lyrics has us in our feelings. The “bad guy” singer released her single on July 13, 2023, and the somber piano track was produced by her brother FINNEAS.
Barbie The Album features tracks from an incredible lineup of artists including Fifty Fifty, Charli XCX, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, PinkPantheress, Karol G, Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Ava Max, Dominic Fike, Khalid, The Kid LAROI, Tame Impala, HAIM and GAYLE. If that won’t get you excited for the blockbuster of the summer featuring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, then maybe the plethora of pink and merch that’s tied around the movie release.
Billie also self-directed the music video accompanying the song. In the video, she sits with her pristine blonde hair and reminisces over tiny costumes from her previous music videos. She also made a clothing line (!!!) with pink velour tracksuits for the movie.
“What was funny about this one was that it was this character that I really did relate to, but I didn’t even realize that I was relating so much. I was just like, “Wow, I feel such a strong connection to this, but I don’t know why.” When we were writing the song, we weren’t thinking about our own lives,” Billie told Variety. “Then a couple days later I was like, “Oh, this is me and my story.” It was pretty jarring, to be honest. It felt like somebody else put a spell on me, and then I saw a couple days later what the outcome was.”
Finneas added: “We were making a song for the movie, and so I don’t think we had any fear, to that end. The more bespoke, the better. Billie and I went and saw the movie, and then wrote what we wrote the next day. This is all back in January of this year. And my girlfriend didn’t see the movie until the premiere in July. And she would hear me playing the song around the house over the next couple of months. (Eventually) I said, “You know, that’s actually a thing that happens in the movie, that she floats, and then one day she doesn’t float anymore and she falls down.” And my girlfriend was like, “Oh, really?” We got lucky that Greta put a great image in the movie, and we could use it.”
A moving song that well ties into Billie’s string of melancholic ballads, here’s the “What Was I Made For” lyrics and what they mean.
What does the “What I Was Made For” by Billie Eilish lyrics mean?
What does the “What I Was Made For” by Billie Eilish lyrics mean? In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Billie describe the process of writing the song. “We truly sat down and Finneas started playing piano, and… those first couple lyrics, “I used to float, now I just fall down,” just came right out…”I used to know, but I’m not sure now what I was made for.”
She continued, “The start of writing this song, the first day of writing, Finneas and I, especially me because it’s from my perspective, we were purely only thinking about Barbie. I did not think about myself once in the writing process.” She then went on to say was so focused on the movie. “I was purely inspired by this movie and this character and the way I thought she would feel, and wrote about that.”
Billie said it was one of the most incredible experiences of her life. “The next week I was playing it in the car all day and playing it for everybody. And I was like, “This is exactly how I feel. And I didn’t even mean to be saying it.” It was truly the trippiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was like, oh, I absolutely was writing about myself, but I was thinking about myself from a third person. And I was thinking about myself objectively, which also made me feel really connected to her, me.”
She also talked about the way that the song came about under a collaboration with her brother, producer Mark Ronson, and Barbie movie director Greta Gerwig. I had heard of it when the internet heard of it like a year ago, and they were shooting and everyone was like, oh my God, it’s Margot Robbie and it’s Ryan Gosling, and it’s all this stuff. Anyway, Finneas goes at one point, Finneas is like, At 3:00 PM today, we’re going to call Greta and Mark.” And I’m like, “Cool.” No team, no anything else. That was it. And we got on a call with them. Greta explained to us the movie, and it was just the sweetest, most pure thing in the world. And of course, Finneas and I went into this honestly in a very selfish way of, we totally might not have anything to do with this movie, but I want to see it. Show me. I want to see it.’
Billie was stunned by the first couple of minutes she saw of the film when Gerwig invited her to an advanced screening. “A minute in, Finneas and I looked at each other like … Whoa, this is insane. She’d play a scene and she’d walk in front of us and she’d go, “So, in the next part, what I want it to be is I want it to really feel like this,” and she’d do her Greta Gerwig-ass thing and she’d come up and she’d show us her passion and tell us all,” Billie recalled.
“And she kept getting up and walking all the way down to the front of the theater to tell us about the next part and explain it. And she was just like, “It’s so scary to show anybody this. It’s like my baby.” She wanted to really explain it and give it all of the context that it needed… She was literally like, ‘I don’t care. Please just, if you’re inspired, make something. And if you’re not, that’s fine. It’s fine. It would be my dream.’
And that dream DID come true! Read the lyrics of “What I Was Made For” by Billie Eilish below.
“What I Was Made For” by Billie EIlish lyrics
Here are the “What I Was Made For” Billie Eilish lyrics via Genius.
[Verse 1]I used to float, now I just fall downI used to know, but I’m not sure nowWhat I was made forWhat was I made for?Takin’ a drive, I was an idealLooked so alive, turns out, I’m not realJust something you paid forWhat was I made for?
[Chorus]‘Cause I, II don’t know how to feelBut I wanna tryI don’t know how to feelBut someday I mightSomeday I might
[Post-Chorus]Mm, mm-mm, aah-oohMm-mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm
[Verse 2]When did it end? All the enjoymentI’m sad again, don’t tell my boyfriendIt’s not what he’s made forWhat was I made for?
[Chorus]‘Cause I, ’cause II don’t know how to feelBut I wanna tryI don’t know how to feelBut someday I mightSomeday I might
[Outro]Think I forgot, how to be happySomething I’m not, but something I can beSomething I wait forSomething I’m made forSomething I’m made for
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