3 Billie Eilish Songs that Elevated Her to Pop Prominence

Billie Eilish has achieved that rare form of pop stardom that really everyone aspires to. She is both globally famous, hugely successful, and somehow still a mystery. Who is she? No one really knows. And that’s a terrific thing. In an era of life when we seem to know too much about people thanks to the internet, Eilish maintains being somehow unknowable.

Yet, despite that, she is one of the biggest pop stars on Earth. Why? Well, she has released seminal songs that have imprinted themselves on the culture. Songs that have topped the chart, won awards, and been featured in giant films. Here below, we wanted to explore three such songs. Indeed, these are three Billie Eilish songs that have elevated her to the top.

[RELATED: The Meaning Behind “Lunch” by Billie Eilish and How She Finally Sounds Free]

“Bad Guy” from When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)

A song with minimal production that also somehow seems to jump off a set of speakers. Billie Eilish had the world by the pinky when she described herself as the “Bad Guy.” For someone who might appear on the surface to be sweet and demure, Eilish put those thoughts to rest when she explicated just how forceful, tough, and biting she could be in this three-minute pop song that has gone on to earn her billions upon billions of streams. Then she made the whole thing playful with a DUH. It was her breakout hit, the song that crafted her image and made the world turn and look at her and realize she was a star. On it she sings,

White shirt now red, my bloody nose

Sleeping, you’re on your tippy toes

Creeping around like no one knows

Think you’re so criminal

Bruises on both my knees for you

Don’t say thank you or please, I do

What I want when I’m wanting to

My soul? So cynical

“No Time to Die” from No Time to Die: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2020)

The song that made Eilish and her brother Finneas Academy Award winners. Titled after the James Bond film of the same name, this track eschews the pop demeanor of the one above and instead presents Eilish like a 1920s blues singer. Mournful, reflective, saddened by the reality humans must face in a violent, greedy world. And yet she’s so powerful within it. Someone who could kill with the bat of an eyelash. Or the bend of a note. On the song, she sings,

I should’ve known

I’d leave alone

Just goes to show

That the blood you bleed

Is just the blood you owe

We were a pair

But I saw you there

Too much to bear

You were my life

But life is far away from fair

“What Was I Made For?” from Barbie the Album (2023)

The song that made Eilish and Finneas two-time Oscar-winners, this song comes from the super popular Barbie movie soundtrack. For a movie that succeeded on the basis of candy-coated color, this song is again a sad, reflective, melancholy masterpiece. Because after all Barbie is about a doll. And what were dolls made for if not to be owned by another. A sad fate that Eilish plays with on this track. And on it, she sings over delicate pianos,

I used to float, now I just fall down

I used to know but I’m not sure now

What I was made for

What was I made for?

Takin’ a drive, I was an ideal

Looked so alive, turns out I’m not real

Just something you paid for

What was I made for?

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