It always felt like something from the Barbie soundtrack was going to win in the Best Original Song category at the 2024 Golden Globes, and so it proved. In the end, it was Billie Eilish who came out on top with What Was I Made For?, seeing off Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night and Ryan Gosling’s I’m Just Ken.
While Bruce Springsteen, Lenny Kravitz and Jack Black were also in the running, the sheer weight of nominations meant that a Barbie win seemed kind of inevitable, and Eilish was quick to thank both Greta Gerwig, the movie’s director, and Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote the script with Gerwig.
“It was exactly a year ago almost that we were shown the movie, and I was very, very depressed and miserable at the time,” Eilish continued. “Writing that song kind of saved me a little bit, and a year later and here we are. It feels really surreal and I feel incredibly lucky and grateful.”
Eilish and Finneas have previously expanded further on the writing and production process behind What Was I Made For?, with Eilish claiming that it was in “the top three hardest songs I’ve ever had to record," because of her vocal delivery. Finneas, meanwhile, admitted to an unlikely influence: “I really wanted the whole thing to sound like Animal Crossing,” he told Vanity Fair.
The other big musical winner of the night was Ludwig Göransson, whose work on Oppenheimer - Barbie’s unlikely box office bedfellow - earned him a Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Addressing Christopher Nolan, the movie’s director, in his acceptance speech, Göransson said: “The way that you use music in your films, and in your storytelling, has inspired a lot of people.”
