Billie Eilish and Finneas bond and win Oscar for best song
Billie Eilish arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
“No Time to Die” is proving a song very much alive at awards shows.
The 007 song by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell has won a Golden Globe, a Grammy and now an Oscar for best original song.
The sister-and-brother artists thanked the whole Bond team and O’Connell closed the speech with words of gratitude for their parents, saying they had “always been our biggest inspirations and our heroes. We love you as parents and we love you as real people, too.”
To win, they beat out some impressive names, including Beyoncé, Van Morrison and Lin-Manuel Miranda. They also prevented Diane Warren from nabbing her first Oscar on her 13th try.
“No Time to Die” debuted and peaked at No. 16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 but debuted at the top of the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart.
The filmmakers behind Daniel Craig’s latest turn as James Bond invited artists to submit their best effort at a title song for the iconic opening credits. Eilish and O’Connell, longtime fans of the franchise, recorded their demo on a tour bus between concerts and put their track up for consideration. Eilish said she and Finneas were given a script with only the movie’s opening scene to go on.
Having recorded the track at the age of 18, Eilish officially became the youngest-ever recording artist to work on a James Bond theme song. The last two Bond songs to take home an Academy Award for best song were Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith’s “Writing’s on the Wall” from “Spectre” in 2016 and Adele and Paul Epworth’s “Skyfall” from 2013.
Eilish has earned seven Grammy Awards, the bulk coming for 2019’s “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” Her 2021 sophomore album “Happier Than Ever” is nominated for album of the year and best pop vocal album.
“No Time to Die” isn’t the only music for a film the brother and sister pair have made. Three songs written by Billie Eilish and Finneas made it on the “Turning Red” soundtrack, pulling heavily from the likes of (asterisk)NSYNC and Backstreet Boys.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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