Billie Eilish Wins Second Oscar With ‘What Was I Made For’
Billie Eilish attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California.
Billie Eilish’s impeccable voice and songwriting have earned the star’s second Oscar win for “What Was I Made For?” On Sunday (March 10) night’s 96th Academy Awards, Eilish performed the Barbie ballad with her brother FINNEAS on the piano. FINNEAS shares both Oscars with her, as they co-wrote the song. The brother-sister powerhouse was joined by an orchestra joined behind them, bathed in pink light, showing that life in plastic is fantastic.
Billie Eilish’s Historic Oscar Win
The 22-year-old award-winner previously won at the 2022 Oscars for the James Bond film, No Time to Die, with the song of the same name. FINNEAS, 26, shared that Oscar as well. Eilish’s first Academy Award win was earned when she was 20, which had already made her the second-youngest Best Original Song winner, just a year older than Marketa Irglova was when she won for “Falling Slowly” from Once in 2008. As one of our favorite songs by her, Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” track has earned her a history-making win. She has now become the youngest two-time winner in Oscar history. The former record holder was Luise Rainer, who won at 28 years old for Best Actress in 1937 for The Great Ziegfeld and again the following year for The Good Earth.
https://youtu.be/Xz-ZSuTnWbI
Billie’s Barbie track won over Barbie star Ryan Gosling, whose “I’m Just Ken” performance blew hers away by a mile as far as production and charisma go. Despite his electrifying performance, with rock star cameos and audience involvement, Gosling could not contend against Billie’s heart-tugging song. Her melancholy performance brought the Barbie cast and other audience members to tears, earning a standing ovation. The other nominees in the category were Becky G and her Flamin’ Hot track “The Fire Inside,” Jon Batiste’s “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony, and Osage Tribal Singers’ “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon.
The 96th Academy Awards hosted by Jimmy Kimmel aired live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. Keep scrolling to see the 2024 Oscars winners list.
2024 Oscars Winners List
The 96th Academy Awards airs live from the Dolby Theater on ABC, abc.com, or the ABC app. on Sunday, March 10, starting at a new earlier time at 7 pm ET, scheduled to end at 10:30 pm ET. A 30-minute pre-show will lead into the live show at 6:30. Jimmy Kimmel returns as host for the fourth time. Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicolas Cage, and Al Pacino are among the first group of presenters for the awards ceremony. Also presenting are last year’s winners: Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Oscar winners Mahershala Ali, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, and Sam Rockwell are also set to take the stage.
Fantastic films are nominated for this year’s Oscars, with Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, The Holdovers, The Color Purple, Maestro, American Fiction, and Past Lives taking a lot of nominations in the major categories. This year, 321 feature films were eligible for the Oscars, and 265 of those qualified for the Best Picture category. For the first time in history, three of the ten movies nominated for best picture were directed by a female, the most in Oscars history. Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and Celine Song’s Past Lives are battling it out against directors Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and Bradley Cooper. Only four years have included films directed by women for best picture: Lone Scherfig’s An Education, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right, Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone, Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, Siân Heder’s CODA, and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. Three of these women-directed films won best picture in their respective Oscar-nominated years: The Hurt Locker, Nomadland, and CODA.
As we previously reported, Ryan Gosling is going to make his first — and probably last — Oscars performance. The Barbie star will officially perform “I’m Just Ken” live at the awards ceremony. The song is nominated for Best Original Song for the annual awards show.
Keep scrolling to see who takes home an Oscar tonight (we will be updating live):
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
