On “Goldwing,” Billie sings about an “angel with golden wings” who she warns against “hungry” people who will try to exploit her.
In 2021 released Happier Than Ever, the second album from superstar Billie Eilish, which explores coming-of-age themes by covering sexuality, fame and even the abuse of power. Among the sixteen tracks on the disc is “Goldwing”, which begins with a choral arrangement of the vocals of “Hymn to Vena” by composer Gustav Holst, dating from 1907, before delivering a strong message about toxicity and power relations:
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“They’re gonna tell you what you wanna hear
Then they’re gonna disappear
Gonna claim you like a souvenir
Just to sell you in a year”
(excerpt from “Goldwing”)
In an interview with Spotify at the time of the album’s release, Billie Eilish defined the song as “a metaphor for a young woman, especially in the street or in life, who is pure. And I don’t mean virgin. I mean a young person who is not exploited, not traumatized. A metaphor for this being an angel with golden wings”. In the columns of Los Angeles TimesBillie Eilish confides today that the song was partly inspired by Olivia Rodrigo, a young pop star to whom everything seems to smile, and who recently released her second album GUTS.
“A song from my last album, called ‘Goldwing,’ is a little bit about her. I’ve never told anyone this. It’s not just about her. I was just thinking of her when I wrote it. She was starting to come up, she was younger than me, and no one had ever been younger than me”shares Billie, herself used to being the young nugget to protect.
At the time of writing the piece, Olivia Rodrigo was starting to be talked about following her participation in the series High School Musical from Disney Channel and the stratospheric success of her hit “Drivers License” in 2021, when she was only 17 years old. “I felt so nervous. I was worried about her. She grew up in the movie world, and people are so weird [là-bas]. I don’t know – I felt very protective of her”explains Billie.
As she explains, the artist didn’t write the piece just for Olivia Rodrigo, but for all women who find themselves in this kind of situation. She cites in particular the young Ariana Greenblatt, who we discovered in the film Barbie recently. “She’s only 16, and I literally want to cry sometimes thinking about her. It’s just that I see myself in all these young girls. […] The boys can fend for themselves. They’re guys, they don’t have to worry about the same things we do. I just want to protect them all in a little glass box and never let anything happen to them.”
2023-11-15 14:31:38
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