Barbie: Billie Eilish and Finneas Talk Crafting “What Was I Made For”

Barbie had a massive soundtrack this year and Billie Eilish shared the story of how she penned “What Was I Made For?” She and her brother Finneas talked to Variety about crafting one of the massive songs from this record. In respect to “What Was I Made for?”, the Grammy-winner shared that she and her songwriting partner got to see the movie early and were knocked off their feet by the experience. After being staggered by the parts they experienced, Eilish talked to Finneas about approaching the Barbie song from a place of hopeful melancholy. During the interview, they revealed that Dua Lipa’s rousing “Dance The Night Away” was already in the film by the time they came aboard. So, it was time to get creative and unleash a massive radio hit at the same time.

Eilish shared, “That’s like a challenge for us, to write these lyrics that are very specific but that totally make sense in everybody’s life. And Greta had such a beautiful film with such amazing visuals that it was easy to think, “OK, what do we write?”

“I remember everybody being like, ‘What the hell? It’s gonna be a fun, cute, girly, pink movie for the summer and we’re all going to be laughing,” she said earlier. “What the f*** is Billie doing on the soundtrack? Why is there going to be a sad song? That doesn’t make any sense.’ And I remember just being like, ‘Guys. It’s not me, it’s the movie. The movie is f******* sad!’”

Barbie Soundtrack Full Of Hits

Barbie Soundtrack producer Kevin Weaver actually shared the story behind one of the movie’s other massive hits. “Barbie Girl” is up for a Grammy this year and pairs Nicki Minaj with Ice Spice for the movie’s closing credits. The stars and Greta Gerwig fought very hard to make sure that some version of the iconic song ended up in there. Here’s what the producer had to say.

“From the very beginning, we had felt like having Nicki, who is Barbie essentially, be a part of this thing. We kind of continued to hone in on the idea of having her do the flip of ‘Barbie Girl,’ and it’s just interesting because there were many moments when she was doing it and there were a lot of moments when she wasn’t doing it and it kind of was happening and not happening,” Kevin Weaver began. “We were getting to a point where Nicki actually cut the record and it was incredible. We knew we loved it and Greta loved it, it was cutting the end of the picture [but] we were having a hard time getting it done.”

“We went to Greta and asked Greta if she would write a letter to Nicki, and Greta wrote this beautiful note to Nicki and basically said like, ‘You are Queen Barb and when I set out to make this film, as I was thinking of artists, you were the first artist that really came to me as somebody that I felt was going to be an important collaborator and contributor to this,’” he added. “I sent that letter to Nicki and the next morning Nicki hit us back and said that she was 100 percent in.”

Who Else Was A Part Of Barbie?

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hits theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. 

The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel. 

Did you love Billie Eilish’s Barbie song? Let us know in the comments!