Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell made Oscar history by becoming the two youngest two-time winners in Academy Awards history, as they picked up the best song trophy for a second time Sunday night for “What Was I Made For?,” their contribution to the “Barbie” soundtrack.
The pop-star siblings previously won for “No Time to Die,” the title song for the 2022 James Bond film. At 22, Eilish has now become the youngest two-time winner in Oscar history; at 26, O’Connell is believed to be the second youngest dual winner.
“What Was I Made For?” was one of two nominated “Barbie” songs. “I’m Just Ken,” the comic lament sung by Ryan Gosling, was the other (by another pair of previous winners, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, who penned “Shallow” for 2018’s “A Star Is Born”).
But while “I’m Just Ken” was performed on-camera in the film, as part of the beachfront battle and elaborate dance number, Eilish’s tender ballad — a melancholy meditation on the complexity of human emotions — added emotional depth to the story and was widely predicted to win. Director Greta Gerwig called it “Barbie’s heart song.”
Eilish and O’Connell already won the Golden Globe and two Grammys (including song of the year) along with Society of Composers & Lyricists honors for “What Was I Made For?” Further boosting it in the odds was an estimated 633 million streams for the Eilish song, far outpacing the 105 million reported for “I’m Just Ken.”