Singer Billie Eilish has dedicated an award for her song on the Barbie soundtrack to ‘anyone experiencing hopelessness’.
The 22-year-old singer was honoured at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for her song What Was I Made For?. Accepting the award, Eilish spoke of her personal experience of feeling ‘existential dread’. She advised people to ‘be patient with yourself’ and said that she now feels ‘it’s great to be alive now’.
On stage, the Bad Guy singer recalled that when she and her brother Finneas O’Connell were asked to write this song, she “was in a dark episode, I guess, and things didn’t make sense in life”. “I just didn’t understand what the point was and why you would keep going. [I was] just questioning everything in the world.”
She and her brother are the first songwriters to receive the Chairman’s Award at the festival. Last year’s prize went to actress Viola Davis for her performance in The Woman King.
Barbie director, Greta Gerwig also received an award for director of the year, presented by Margot Robbie and America Ferrera. The film became the highest-grossing film of the year, taking more than $1.4bn (£1.1m) worldwide.
