Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell, have become the two youngest people to have won two Academy Awards, at ages 22 and 26, respectively, with both victories coming from the Best Original Song category.
Finneas O'Connell, left, and Billie Eilish accept the award for best original song for "What Was I ... [+]
Eilish and O’Connell won the Best Original Song Oscar for “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” their second victory in the category.
The songwriting duo previously won for the titular song from “No Time To Die” just two years ago, which made Eilish the second-youngest winner in the category at the time at just 20 years old.
“What Was I Made For?” triumphed over “I’m Just Ken,” another nominee from “Barbie,” and three other nominees: “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony,” “Flamin’ Hot” from “The Fire Inside” and “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Like all the other Original Song nominees, Eilish and O’Connell performed “What Was I Made For?” during the ceremony.
Before Eilish and O’Connell’s record-setting victory, only three people had won two Oscars by the age of 30, all of which came from the Best Actress category. Luise Rainer won back-to-back Oscars in 1937 and 1938 for her performances in “The Great Zigfield” and “The Good Earth,” achieving her second win at age 28. Jodie Foster won for “The Accused” in 1989 at age 26 and “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1992 at age 29. Hilary Swank won her Oscars for “Boys Don’t Cry” in 2000 and “Million Dollar Baby” in 2005, winning her second at age 30.
“What Was I Made For?” also scored big at the Grammys in February, winning Eilish and O’Connell the Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media trophies. The song was also a commercial success, with more than 700 million streams on Spotify.
When Eilish won her first Oscar in 2022, she became the first person born in the 21st century to win an Academy Award.
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