Billie Eilish defends new song ‘Wish You Were Gay’ after backlash
Billie Eilish was criticised after “Wish You Were Gay” came out. (Bennett Raglin/Getty)
Billie Eilish has defended her new song “Wish You Were Gay” after fans expressed anger that it was about a man.
The 17-year-old “Ocean Eyes” singer told PopBuzz that the track, which she unveiled on Monday (March 4), was “kind of a joke” and “so not supposed to be an insult.”
A tease of the title led some fans to conclude that she might come out on “Wish You Were Gay.”
Billie Eilish said Wish You Were Gay was “so not supposed to be an insult.” (Rich Fury/Getty)
Fans were upset when it emerged that the song was actually about Eilish wishing that a guy who didn’t like her back was gay.
Some grew furious after seeing a video of the star saying she “made” the subject of the song come out as gay. Eilish told fans in the undated recording: “I did that s**t! I wrote the song and made him f**k a dude. I’m f***ing proud, bro.”
the meaning behind ‘wish you were gay’ (this is from an old livestream) pic.twitter.com/kRLCEZO4zR
— billie eilish updates (@eilishupdates) March 3, 2019
In response, Eilish said: “First off I want to be so clear that it’s so not supposed to be an insult. I feel like it’s been a little bit misinterpreted.
“I tried so hard to not make it in any way offensive. The whole idea of the song is, it’s kind of a joke.
“It’s kind of like ‘I’m an ass and you don’t love me. And you don’t love me because you don’t love me and that’s the only reason and I wish you didn’t love me because you didn’t love girls.'”
Billie Eilish suggests it would be the same if “Wish You Were Gay” was a queer love song
The teenage singer added that “it could be the opposite way. It could be a girl interested in a girl and maybe that girl likes girls also but she doesn’t like her back.
“And then it’s like: ‘Well damn. I wish you were straight!’ You know what I’m saying, it could be exactly the other way. I wish you were straight because you didn’t like me because you like boys.”
“He came out to me a couple months after I wrote that song which is kind of insane.”
— Billie Eilish about the subject of her song “Wish You Were Gay”
She emphasised that the song was intended to show her as “selfish and an ass. I don’t wanna take my L so I’m just gonna pretend that you didn’t just reject me.”
The singer once again reiterated in the interview that the subject of the song had revealed he was gay after she finished writing it.
“He came out to me a couple months after I wrote that song which is kind of insane,” she said.
