Billie Eilish released her new song "What Was I Made For?" on Thursday.
The enigmatic, moody ballad will be featured in "Barbie," the upcoming film directed by Greta Gerwig. The soundtrack was executive produced by Mark Ronson, who described Eilish as "one of the fucking greatest living artists around" who "also had a very personal, idiosyncratic tie to Barbie as well."
The song is packed with existential lyrics that speak to the cyborgian trap of feminine beauty, but also more precisely, the plight of a literal plastic doll: "I was an ideal / Looked so alive, turns out, I'm not real / Just something you paid for."
Eilish herself has spoken at length about her struggles with body image and feeling objectified by the public, especially as it pertains to her personal style, which tends to lean more traditionally masculine.
"No matter what you do, it's wrong and right," she told The Times. "Wearing baggy clothes, nobody is attracted to me, I feel incredibly unlovable and unsexy and not beautiful, and people shame you for not being feminine enough."
"Then you wear something more revealing and they're like, 'You're such a fat cow whore,'" she continued. "I'm a slut and I'm a sell-out and I'm just like every other celebrity selling their bodies, and woah! What the fuck do you want? It's a crazy world for women and women in the public eye."
She has also criticized fans for treating her like "different Barbies with different heads" when she dyed her hair blonde.
Indeed, the "What Was I Made For?" music video, also released on Thursday, draws an explicit connection between Eilish's career in the spotlight to the servile life of a Barbie doll.
Eilish is shown opening a trunk of doll clothing — the 1962 "Solo in the Spotlight" Barbie trunk, to be specific — and pulling out miniature versions of real-life outfits she has worn. Keep scrolling to see every reference the video makes to Eilish's past.