Eighteen-year-old Billie Eilish just dropped a new goth-pop single called “Therefore I Am.”
In its first day of release, the track shot to number one on Spotify’s U.S. Streaming Chart—which is hardly a surprise given Eilish’s massive cultural pull these days.
As for the song’s content, this single communicates a bold message to haters as Eilish confronts those who’ve being critical of her—especially critics of her body. In response, the teen states that she refuses to let negative opinions and perceptions of her weigh her down.
“Therefore I Am” is a line taken from the famous French philosopher René Descartes. And in this song, Eilish uses that idea to tell whoever is listening that she is, unapologetically, herself—and she won’t be embracing someone else’s critical opinion of her.
Hopping right into the chorus, Eilish tells people who think they’re better than her, “I’m not your friend/Or anything, d–n/You think that you’re the man/I think, therefore, I am.”
Apparently, people have been slandering Eilish’s name (“Stop, what the h— are you talking about? Ha/Get my pretty name out of your mouth/Don’t talk ’bout me like how you might know how I feel”), and she’s not OK with it.
Why? Well, for obvious reasons. First, she isn’t OK with making assumptions about others based on a subjective perspective (“We are not the same”), and Eilish prefers to be as genuine and authentic as possible (“Top of the world, but your world isn’t real/Your world’s an ideal”).
According to Eilish, whoever is spreading negativity and lies needs to understand that “we’re on different lines” and that she’s not going to cave under pressure (“Wanna be nice enough, they don’t call my bluff”). In the end, her goal is to forget about all of it and move on (“Did you have fun?/I really couldn’t care less”).
Back in March 2020, Eilish received a plethora of negative comments and tweets when a picture of her in baggy shorts and a tank top went viral. The problem? Not that she was wearing too little, because she wasn’t. The problem was that other people didn’t like Eilish’s physical appearance. And they let her know.
Her response? Well, a few months ago she released a short film where she says if she lived by everyone’s thoughts and opinions of her, she’d “never be able to move.”
So, according to this song, she’s just not going to listen to millions of online trolls. Instead, she will, albeit profanely, tell her haters that she does not care what they have to say.
Especially when they don’t know her.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
