Billie Eilish matches rare awards feat last achieved by Celine Dion in 1998
Eilish, 22, is the only artist to achieve the feat in her lifetime
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Your support makes all the difference.Billie Eilish and her brother/songwriting partner Finneas have won their second Oscar for Best Original Song, this time for their Barbie soundtrack contribution, “What Was I Made For”.
They last scooped the coveted music prize in 2021, with their James Bond theme “No Time to Die”.
The duo accepted the award at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday (10 March), shortly after performing the song live in front of their star-studded audience.
Eilish, 22, is now the first artist since Celine Dion to win both Song of the Year and the Oscar for Best Original Song in the same year. Dion won both prizes in 1998 with her Titanic theme, “My Heart Will Go On.”
This means that Eilish is the only artist to achieve the feat in her lifetime, given she was not yet born when Dion collected her trophies.
She now joins an elite group of artists to have scooped both trophies in the same year. It also includes songwriting duo Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, who pulled a double with “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (winning the Oscar for Best Original Song in April 1962, then the Grammy for Song of the Year one month later), and “Days of Wine and Roses” from the film of the same name, in 1963.
Other notable winners include Alan Menken and Tim Rice for their Aladdin song “A Whole New World”, which is also the only song from an animated film to win both awards, and Bruce Springsteen with his debut song for a feature film, “Streets of Philadelphia”, in 1994/1995.
In the winner’s room, Eilish spoke of how she’d convinced herself that she was a failure, aged 12, after watching Matilda on Broadway.
“I was balling, (thinking) I am never going to amount to anything because I am not in Matilda,” she said. “Just give yourself some time, do what you love and I know that is easier said than done, some of us don't know what we love. You'll figure it out.”
After thanking her teachers in her acceptance speech, Eilish gave advice to young people in the winners' room, saying: “Don't do it for other people, don't do it for the numbers or for some sort of specific thing, that is not really ever something anyone should be looking for.
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“I want everyone to be doing something they feel passionate about and proud of and makes them feel like the best version of themselves.”
Eilish added that Barbie made “a lot of people feel very seen, that can be rare, especially as a woman”.
Elsewhere during the Oscars, Barbie star Ryan Gosling, who was also up for Best Original Song with “I’m Just Ken”, delighted the audience with a hot pink performance of the track complete with backing dancer Kens.
A number of viewers spotted how Gosling made several references to Marilyn Monroe’s iconic look and routine to “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”, from the 1958 film Gentleman Prefer Blondes.
You can find the latest updates from the 2024 Oscars here, and a full list of winners at this year’s Academy Awards here.
Additional reporting by Press Association
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