Billie Eilish Dedicates ‘Barbie’ Award To ‘Anyone Who Experiences Hopelessness’

Billie Eilish appeared at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival last week, being honoured with the Chairman's Award for her Barbie soundtrack inclusion What Was I Made For?

The emotive piano ballad – written specifically for the smash-hit Margot Robbie vehicle – was a standout part of its soundtrack, cutting deep with a raw performance that perfectly embodies its themes of hopelessness and existentialism. It turns out Eilish drew from more than just the Barbie movie itself, though: accepting her award last Thursday (January 4), she explained to festival attendees that she wrote it during “a dark episode”, when “things didn’t make sense in life”.

As reported by the BBC, Eilish continued in her acceptance speech: “I just didn't understand what the point was and why you would keep going. [I was] just questioning everything in the world.”

Barbie, however, allowed her to feel “so seen” and helped her reckon with the feelings she’d been internalising – something she wasn’t expecting when she first sat down to watch the film. “I was watching Barbie and seeing things,” she said, “and I think that this movie is the most incredible, most empowering and beautiful and funny and just unbelievable piece of art in the world, and I'm so, so honoured to be a part of it.”

Eilish went on to dedicate the award – and “all recognition that this song gets” – to “anyone who experiences hopelessness and the feeling of existential dread, and feeling like, ‘What's the point? And why am I here, and why am I doing this?’”.

She expounded on the sentiment: “I think we all feel like that occasionally, but I think if somebody like me, with the amount of privilege that I have and the incredible things that I get to do and be and how I have really not wanted to be here and – sorry to be dark – damn, but I've spent a lot of time feeling that way. And I just want to say to anyone who feels that way to be patient with yourself and know that it is, I think, worth it all, and I think it's great to be alive now.”

At the ceremony, Eilish was reportedly gassed up by film icon Meryl Streep, who in the process of presenting an award to Carey Mulligan, praised the singer – and her brother, co-recipient of the Chairman's Award and career-long collaborator Finneas O’Connell – for “deliver[ing] the Barbie love bomb”. Streep opined that the pair “saved the movies last summer and all of our jobs” and “delivered joy to countless generations and genders of people”, adding: “You should surf that wave, kids, until you're old and deserve to be jaded like me.”

Notably, Eilish and O’Connell mark the first songwriters to receive the Chairman’s Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival; last year, it was given to actress Viola Davis to honour her role in The Woman King.

Barbie director Greta Gerwig was also presented with an award at this year’s ceremony, taking home the trophy for Director Of The Year (which was handed to her by Robbie and co-star America Ferrera).

What Was I Made For? was a hit in its own right, topping the charts worldwide (including in Australia) and becoming one of the most popular songs in Eilish’s entire catalogue. Also featured on the Barbie soundtrack were artists like Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Charli XCX, Sam Smith, Tame Impala and The Kid LAROI; it went Gold in four countries (again, including Australia) and Platinum in New Zealand.