Billie Eilish to Record New Bond Film Theme Song, Becoming Youngest-Ever Artist to Do So
No Time to Die opens on April 8, 2020
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Music News Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric, and the dark-pop wunderkind now adds another impressive feather to her cap: She’ll perform and record the title song she and her brother Finneas cowrote for the 25th James Bond film, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s No Time to Die, becoming the youngest artist in history to write and record a Bond theme. Eilish broke the big news via Twitter on Tuesday, shortly before the official 007 account.
Billie has written and will perform the theme song for the 25th James Bond film, #NoTimeToDie@007pic.twitter.com/BrxqLM6ED6
— billie eilish (@billieeilish) January 14, 2020
The #NoTimeToDie title song will be performed by @billieeilish. Billie has written the song with her brother @finneas and is the youngest artist in history to write and record a James Bond theme song. pic.twitter.com/Qd5cYIRlmg
— James Bond (@007) January 14, 2020
The 18-year-old Eilish is far from the Bond theme status quo: She’s American, for one thing, and a more stylistically unorthodox pop star than recent Bond contributors like Adele or Sam Smith—the latter of whom was previously the youngest artist to handle a Bond theme at 23 years old when he performed and recorded “Writing’s on the Wall” for 2015’s Spectre. Eilish’s selection is likely meant to signal a break from the usual Bond business: After all, No Time to Die features the franchise’s first American director in Fukunaga, as well as a modern feminist bent courtesy of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Lashana Lynch. It’s only right to go all out in giving outgoing star Daniel Craig a grand send-off, as well as bringing Bond into the 2020s.
To say 2019 was a breakout year for Eilish is an extreme understatement. She’s among the most-nominated artists at this year’s Grammys, with nods for: Record of the Year, Song Of The Year and Best Pop Solo Performance, all for her smash hit “bad guy”; Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, both for her platinum debut WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?; and Best New Artist, for all of the above. Paste praised her album as one of 2019’s best, with Steven Edelstone writing, “There will likely be no singular album that absolutely nails the sound of 2019 quite like Billie Eilish’s debut record.”
No Time to Die opens on April 8, 2020. You can watch a trailer for the film here and stream Eilish’s album here.