Billie Eilish And Finneas’ Moving Oscars Performance Left The ‘Barbie’ Cast And Others In Tears Or Close To It

Looking purely at the charts, “What Was I Made For?” isn’t the biggest hit of Billie Eilish’s career. It managed a peak at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which is great, but not as good her as the chart-topping “Bad Guy” or the No. 2 hit “Therefore I Am.” It’s certainly one of the best-received songs Eilish has released so far, though, and the response to her and Finneas’ performance of the Barbie favorite at the 2024 Academy Awards was proof of that.

Compositionally, the song is relatively simple, which played in its favor on stage at the Oscars: Its three core elements — Eilish’s voice, Finneas’ piano, and the orchestra that accompanied them — were able to gorgeously play off each other with no distractions.

When the song was over, Eilish gave an audible “whoa” in response to the audience’s reaction. She got a standing ovation, and crowd shots showed that a bunch of people were either teary-eyed, close to it, or were otherwise wowed, including much of the Barbie cast. In particular, Ariana Grande looked floored, and Kate McKinnon appeared to be holding something in after giving a triumphant scream.

It was a huge night for Eilish outside of the performance, as “What Was I Made For?” also won Best Original Song. That makes 22-year-old Eilish the youngest two-time Oscar winner ever.

Find the full list of this year’s Oscar winners here.