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https://scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3050607/billie-eilish-releases-no-time-die-theme-song-ballad News & Trends
Billie Eilish releases No Time to Die theme song – a ballad of betrayal and despair – for the upcoming James Bond film
The song, co-written by Eilish and brother, Finneas, and released on YouTube, makes the 18-year-old the youngest to write and record a James Bond theme song
Billie Eilish, who performed at the 62nd Grammy Awards and at the 92nd Academy Awards, just released the latest James Bond theme song. Photo: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
American pop sensation Billie Eilish, fresh off her big Grammy Awards victory and an Oscar night performance, has released her much-anticipated official theme song to the forthcoming James Bond film, No Time to Die.
The four-minute ballad, a haunting song of betrayal and despair co-written by Eilish and her older brother, Finneas Baird O’Connell, and performed to an orchestral arrangement, was posted on February 13 to YouTube and various music streaming sites.
The recording, itself titled No Time to Die, was produced by O’Connell with a musical arrangement by Hans Zimmer and Matt Dunkley. The track, released by Eilish’s Interscope Records/Darkroom label, includes veteran British musician Johnny Marr (from famed band The Smiths) on guitar.
Eilish, 18, becomes the youngest artist ever to write and record a James Bond theme song, following in the footsteps of such stars as Adele, Madonna and Paul McCartney.
The song’s foreboding lyrics suggest a romance that meets with a decidedly unhappy ending, as Eilish sings in a chorus:
Fool me once, fool me twice/Are you death or paradise?
Now you’ll never see me cry/There’s just no time to die.
The movie No Time to Die, the 25th title in the James Bond motion picture franchise, is due to arrive in theatres in April, with Daniel Craig resuming his title role as the British secret agent for a fifth and final time.
Eilish is slated to perform the theme song live for the first time at the Brit Awards in London on February 18, ahead of the March 9 launch of her North American arena tour, Interscope said in a statement.
She had widely been expected to debut the Bond single at the Academy Awards show on February 9, but she sang the Beatles’ Yesterday during the telecast’s in memoriam segment instead.
Two weeks earlier Eilish swept the Grammys by taking the four top prizes – best album, best record, song of the year and best new artist – becoming only the second musician to win all four categories on the same night.
Eilish wrote and recorded most of her debut studio album, “When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”, with her brother, Finneas, 22, in the small bedroom of their Los Angeles-area home.
The album, including such hits as When the Party’s Over, Everything I Wanted and Bad Guy, ranked as the No. 1 album of 2019.