Billie Eilish Delivers Heartfelt Performance of “What Was I Made For?” at the Oscars

Billie Eilish pulled on audience heartstrings while performing her hit song from the Barbie soundtrack, “What Was I Made For?” during the 2024 Oscars.

Wearing a Thom Browne tweed blazer and a long black skirt — similar to her red carpet look — Eilish sang the emotional lyrics as Finneas played the piano with an orchestra in the background.

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Following the emotional rendition, the music duo got a standing ovation from the crowd, with screams from Barbie collaborators Kate McKinnon and Ariana Grande.

“What Was I Made For?,” written by Eilish and her brother Finneas, also plays in the Greta Gerwig-directed movie, during the scene when Margot Robbie’s Barbie meets her creator Ruth Handler.

When the music duo was initially approached to contribute to the Barbie soundtrack, the “Bad Guy” singer previously recalled that she “was in a dark episode and things didn’t make sense in life. I just didn’t understand what the point was and why you would keep going. [I was] questioning everything in the world.”

But after she watched some footage from the film that Gerwig had compiled, that’s when her perspective changed. “Basically I was just watching Barbie say and feel things that I really, really, really resonated with and felt so close to,” Eilish said at the Palm Springs Film Awards in January. “I felt so seen, and I did not expect that.”

The song also won the Oscar for best original song on Sunday, making Eilish and Finneas the youngest two-time Oscar winners. Other nominated tracks this year included “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot, “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie, “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony and “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon.

The 96th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, were held on March 10 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. Find the full winners list here, and check out the Oscars red carpet arrivals.

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