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Billie Eilish Reveals Her Song ‘Goldwing’ Is ‘Kind of About’ Olivia Rodrigo: ‘I Was Worried About Her’
In a world that often pits young pop stars against each other, Billie Eilish has made sure to support her fellow artists, including Olivia Rodrigo. The “Bad Guy” hitmaker admitted to feeling “a protectiveness over Olivia,” even revealing that her 2021 song “Goldwing” off her sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, was “kind of about” the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actress.
“It’s not only about her. I was just thinking about her when I was writing it. She was coming up, and she was younger than me, and nobody had ever been younger than me,” Billie, 21, told the Los Angeles Times of Olivia, 20, in an interview published on Tuesday, November 14.
In “Goldwing,” which features a beautiful choral arrangement from Gustav Holst’s 1907 piece “Hymn to Vena,” Billie sings to a “gold-winged angel” and warns them about “starved” people who will try to exploit and destroy them.
“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,” some of the lyrics read.
In a 2021 interview with Spotify, Billie said that “Goldwing” is a “metaphor for a young woman, especially in the street or life, that is pure, and I don’t mean a virgin. I mean like a young, non-exploited, non-traumatized person. A metaphor for that being a gold-winged angel.”
Relating the song to Olivia, Billie told the L.A. Times that the Disney star was “getting big” at the time when the tune was written, but she was still a “little dainty child.”
“I felt so nervous. I was worried about her. She came up in that acting world, and people are so weird. I don’t know — I just felt very protective over her. And I feel that way to everyone,” Billie continued.
Similar to Billie, who was 14 years old when her song “Ocean Eyes” brought her overnight fame, Olivia initially gained fame at 13 when she starred on Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark, followed by HSMTMTS. Musically, Olivia had her breakout moment at 17 years old with her 2021 hit “Driver’s License.”
Billie concluded that she feels the same way about other young stars, namely Ariana Greenblatt, who played middle schooler Sasha in the Barbie movie.
“She’s 16, and I literally want to cry about her sometimes,” Billie said. “I just see myself in all these young girls. And it’s the girls, man. Boys can handle themselves. They’re dudes — they don’t have to deal with it like we do. I just want to hold everybody in a little glass box and never let anything touch them.”
