Billie Eilish Drops ‘My Future’ in Time for Finneas’ Birthday

Billie Eilish returned with her new single “My Future” on Thursday — which is also her brother/collaborator Finneas’ 23rd birthday.

The song follows “No Time to Die,” the title track for a not-yet-unreleased James Bond film. Its corresponding animated video was created by Australian artist Andrew Onorato. 

“My Future,” which starts off characteristically wistful, is actually Eilish’s most uplifting song to date. As the visuals suggest, the song starts off on the dark and somber side, but by a minute and 45 seconds, the sun shines and a percussive beat kicks in, speeding things up to a danceable degree. “I’m in love with my future, can’t wait to meet her. I’m in love, but not with anybody else. Just want to get to know myself,” Eilish oozes through jazzy vocals before the rain clears just in time for a funky bass line.

“We wrote this at the very beginning of quarantine,” Eilish said in an email to fans on release day. “It’s a song that’s really, really personal and special to me. When we wrote this song, it was exactly where my head was at — hopeful, excited and a crazy amount of self-reflection and self-growth. But recently it has also taken on a lot of new meaning in the context of what’s happening in the world now. I hope you can all find meaning in it for yourselves.” 

Eilish released her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? via Darkroom/Interscope last year. An emo tour de force in the bedroom pop sector, it eventually became the best-performing album of 2019 and spawned hit single “Bad Guy,” now six-times platinum. She won five Grammy Awards this January, sweeping the Big Four categories (Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist) and taking the Best Pop Vocal Album category as well. O’Connell took home the Producer of the Year and Best Engineered Album trophies on his own. 

Following the Grammys, Eilish released “No Time to Die,” the theme song for the latest installment of the James Bond film franchise. She performed the song with Johnny Marr at the Brit Awards before the film’s April release was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In March, Eilish launched a short arena tour that was soon cut short by the pandemic, as well. 

“The future feels uncertain and crazy right now,” Eilish continued in her email. “But i think we need to be ready to put the work in, and if we do that, we should be hopeful and excited for our future. I have to keep reminding myself that the future is ours, and I know we want to do everything we can to make it better for everyone in the world, and for the world itself. We need keep ourselves educated and aware of what is going on around us. we need to keep looking forward. We need to keep fighting for what we know is right. We need to vote. We need to take care of the earth. We need to fight for all Black lives. And we need to just. be. better. It’s up to us to change things now. Not only for us, but for future generations. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Wear a mask. Drink water. Stay hopeful.”

As MTV aptly wrote on Eilish’s Instagram post teasing “My Future”: “At least I’m working from home so nobody will see me cry.”