Billie Eilish makes history as the youngest-ever artist to win two Oscars

Billie Eilish has made history after winning Best Original Song with ‘What Was I Made For?’, becoming the youngest artist ever to win two Academy Awards. 

At just 22 years old, Eilish picked up her second-ever award at the 2024 Oscars for the track from the Barbie movie alongside her brother and co-writer Finneas O’Connell. The pair were presented the award by none other than Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. 

The sibling duo were tasked with beating a stellar lineup of original movie songs, including a further Barbie contender, ‘I’m Just Ken’, written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt and performed by Ryan Gosling. Other tracks up for the award included ‘Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)’ from Killers of the Flower Moon, and ‘It Never Went Away’ from the documentary American Symphony.

Eilish’s track hit number one in the UK and Australia, landed at number 14 in the US, and formed “Barbie’s heart song”, as the singer put it. The scene sees the titular character encountering the ghost of her creator Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman), as well as an emotive montage of real girls and women, showing Barbie what it means to be human. 

At the ceremony, Elish said: “I feel so incredibly lucky and honoured,” dedicating the award to “everyone affected by the movie and how incredible it was”.

She also noted her best friend Zoe “for playing Barbies with me” as well as two music teachers, one of whom “didn’t like me but you were good at your job”.

The movie has been nominated for eight gongs at the Academy Awards 2024 in total, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, and Best Supporting Actress for America Ferrera. 

However, the Academy was subjected to backlash, after Robbie and Gerwig weren’t nominated for Best Actress and Best Director, respectively.  

At the time, Gosling addressed the elephant in the room, explaining that he was “disappointed” that they were overlooked in the nominations. Even Whoopi Goldberg, an Oscar award-winner and former Academy board-member, chimed in on the situation. 

However, Robbie previously opened up about the situation in a Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) conversation with her co-stars, saying that “there’s no way to feel sad”.