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Billie Eilish first turned heads with her gorgeous vocals at the age of 13 when she released her first single “Ocean Eyes” on SoundCloud, which nabbed her a record deal and served as the beginning to her now-massive career. But most people (including myself) first became acquainted with Billie four years later when “bad guy” became a No. 1 hit. Years later, (now that Eilish has had quite a few huge songs) the singer is playfully dunking on the pop song with a super hot take, and I have thoughts.
When Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell were guests on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, hot off the hot pink heels of their Barbie song going viral, the talk show host asked Billie if there are any songs she cringes a little bit about looking back. I was pretty surprised to hear this response from the 21-year-old:
Well, objectively ‘bad guy’ is the stupidest song in the world, but it’s really good. Oh my god, don’t gasp, but you have to have understand, you have to have humor in it. That song I’m trolling, you know what I’m saying? Like that song is supposed to be goofy, but it’s just funny because I’m like ‘It’s dumb.’ It’s literally… like ‘duh?’ Like, what does that mean?
Four years after the release of “bad guy,” Billie has a hilarious take on one of her biggest hits, and hey, it’s kind of fair. I’ve never actually thought about why she would say “duh,” and yeah, it’s quite random of a song overall. As soon as Billie confessed she thinks “bad guy” is sort of the “stupidest song in the world,” the live audience had a huge reaction, of course. As she explained herself further, it does remind me of how funny the song itself is. I understand her take, especially since it’s the song of all songs that really leveled up her fame, but she’s absolutely wrong about it being dumb. Here’s what else she said about it during the talk show appearance:
Finneas and I simultaneously both disagree with when an artist is very I don’t know, hateful toward their own music… I find that very frustrating because I’m like ‘Why are you doing this then?’ I feel like we’re big fans of what we make and I love my own music and it definitely just changes and morphs with me and it becomes whatever, but I still cringe. But, I appreciate it though.
Look, if I had made a song when I was a teenager and it became that big, I’m sure I’d change my thoughts about it over the years too. Eilish has evolved since “bad guy” and matured her sound since, so I totally see why she would dunk on the song from her perspective. However, I will not have bad mouthing about “bad guy” because it’s brilliant… still! It’s weird, original and off the wall, and it’s the reason why I fell in love with Billie Eilish. The artist showed off more personality in a single song than I’ve heard from other pop singer’s entire discography, and it was the perfect introduction to her and Finneas’ music. Check out the music video:
She absolutely was trolling, but look where it got her! Billie Eilish may cringe a bit about it now, but when I look at “bad guy” and remember the first time I heard that song and it started getting in my head – ooh, not to mention the first time I blasted it in my car. It remains a jam! Don’t get me wrong, I love the current Billie Eilish, who may win her second Oscar for Barbie’s “What Was I Made For?” next year following making the No Time To Die theme song, but “stupid” songs like “bad guy” are underrated, which makes them the opposite of such a classification.