Do we have time to listen to Billie Eilish's Bond theme song for No Time To Die?
The James Bond movie theme song has long been a milestone in the career of musical artists, something that Daniel Craig’s tenure in the role of the international superspy has only made more clear, as a wide variety of artists have striven to get their Shirley Bassey on on his behalf. Chris Cornell, Jack White, Alicia Keys, Adele, and Sam Smith have all sung the backing tunes for Craig’s nicely-suited shenanigans, reminding audiences that they know his name, promising another way to die, confirming that the sky done fell, and making it clear that the writing is, ultimately, on the wall.
Now meteoric up-and-coming Grammy winner Billie Eilish has formally joined these august ranks, having just released “No Time To Die,” the title track from the April 10 film of the same name, on the internet this afternoon. Written with Eilish’s brother, Finneas O’Connell, the song is slow, moody, romantically paranoid (“Fool me once, fool me twice”), and shot through with lots of Bond-ian touches—including heavy doses of those classic 007 strings. Eilish and the film’s social media team released the song just a few minutes ago, uploading it to YouTube in all its surprisingly sweeping glory.
The film’s Twitter account also announced that Eilish will be performing the track live at the Brit Awards next week, alongside O’Connell, Hans Zimmer, and Johnny Marr. Per Pitchfork, Eilish was positively giddy about getting to put her spin on the franchise, noting in a recent interview that “It feels crazy to be a part of this in every way. To be able to score the theme song to a film that is part of such a legendary series is a huge honor. James Bond is the coolest film franchise ever to exist. I’m still in shock.”
Zimmer is also writing the movie’s score.