Billie Eilish becomes youngest person to win 2 Oscars

Eilish and Finneas O'Connell have won two Oscars for best original song.

March 11, 2024, 9:04 AM

Billie Eilish has made history, becoming the youngest person to win two Academy Awards.

The 22-year-old and her older brother, Finneas O'Connell, won the best original song Oscar for “What Was I Made For?” from the “Barbie” soundtrack.

PHOTO: Billie Eilish poses with the Oscar for Best Original Song for "What Was I Made For?" from "Barbie" in the Oscars photo room at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, March 10, 2024.
Billie Eilish poses with the Oscar for Best Original Song for "What Was I Made For?" from "Barbie" in the Oscars photo room at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, March 10, 2024.
Carlos Barria/Reuters
PHOTO: Finneas O'Connell and Billie Eilish, winners of the Best Original Song award for 'What Was I Made For?' from "Barbie", pose in the press room during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at Ovation Hollywood on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, Calif.
Finneas O'Connell and Billie Eilish, winners of the Best Original Song award for 'What Was I Made For?' from "Barbie", pose in the press room during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at Ovation Hollywood on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, Calif.
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

The siblings also performed their breathy “Barbie” hit during the awards ceremony Sunday at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, ahead of Ryan Gosling’s high-octane “I’m Just Ken” performance.

PHOTO: Billie Eilish (R) and US singer-songwriter Finneas O'Connell accept the award for Best Original Song for "What Was I Made For" from "Barbie" onstage during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on March 10, 2024.
Singer-songwriter Billie Eilish (R) and US singer-songwriter Finneas O'Connell accept the award for Best Original Song for "What Was I Made For" from "Barbie" onstage during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on March 10, 2024.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Ahead of the Oscars, Eilish told “GMA3” the haunting song was deeply influenced by the Greta Gerwig-directed film.

“If we hadn’t been shown the movie and talked to Greta about it, we would not have made that song,” Eilish said. “We wouldn’t have known the movie had that gut-wrenching aspect to it.”

She continued, “Watching it and seeing what it was about and that scene of Barbie sitting at the bus stop and there’s that old woman sitting next to her – that scene just really got me and it made me [go,] ‘Oh, this is so much more than we all think.’”

Eilish and O'Connell are longtime collaborators, with Eilish typically singing and her brother accompanying her on the piano. They also write lyrics and compose music together.

“When we are given an assignment and a challenge, it is truly where we thrive,” Eilish told “GMA3.” “We’ll sit down and write a song and if it’s not coming out perfectly, I think sometimes we go like, ‘OK, what’s some character we can be? Let’s make up something and not have to worry about ourselves and we can write from another character’s perspective.’”

The musical duo earned their first Oscar together in 2022, also for best original song, for “No Time to Die,” from the 2021 James Bond movie, “No Time to Die.”

Both Eilish and O'Connell agree that it feels “surreal” to be Oscar winners but they try to keep their musical ambitions in perspective.

“We never set out to make anything for the accolades. We’re trying to make it to do the best job we can do,” O'Connell said. “If we’re worrying about anyone’s opinion, it’s the audience’s opinion.”

“We feel so lucky but I think as long as the audience is happy, we feel like we’ve done a good job,” O'Connell added.

Eilish and O’Connell also won the Grammy for "What Was I Made For?" beating out Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Jon Batiste, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo.

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