Multiple Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Billie Eilish says she and her brother Finneas O’Connell had been writing Bond theme songs long before they were tapped to record the No Time to Die theme. An iconic component of James Bond films since 1964’s Goldfinger, the long-running action franchise has boasted theme songs performed by artists from Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones, to Paul McCartney, Madonna and Tina Turner. Only the opening credit sequences to 1962’s Dr. No, 1963’s From Russia With Love and 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service forwent an opening theme song sung by a well-known artist, and instead relied on orchestral music.
For No Time to Die, the 25th film in the James Bond franchise, producers approached Eilish and her brother O’Connell to write and record the theme song which would accompany Daniel Craig’s final time in the role. Having recorded the track at the age of 18, Eilish officially became the youngest ever recording artist to work on a James Bond theme song. The single would also go on to win a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at last year’s 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
Most recently, Eilish and her brother spoke to Variety about their work on the film’s theme song and their process to produce the award-winning track. Calling the opportunity the fulfilment of “a life goal,” Eilish suggested the brother and sister duo were already familiar with the nuances of Bond theme music and would often “pretend to” write Bond themes before they were ever approached in an official capacity for No Time to Die. Check out her comments below:
"We for years we have wanted to write a Bond song, like sometimes we would like to pretend to and come up with chords that felt like Bond. And we would literally do this way before it was a thing, even a real thing that we would ever do."
Not only did Eilish’s contribution to the Bond franchise in No Time to Die end up winning her a Grammy, but it also served to deliver her first ever number-one single in the UK, as well as making her the first artist born in the 21st century to top the country’s charts. Curiously, however, Craig was reportedly not sold on the track on his initial listen. However, after hearing the track twice in the recording studio, the Bond star would go on to describe it as “f**king amazing.”
With Craig now officially done with the James Bond role, fans are already clamoring to see who the next actor to tackle the iconic British spy part will be. Whomever the producers choose, perhaps Eilish and her brother may be keen to return for a new Bond opener, paving the way for another record as the only artist since Shirley Bassey to perform more than one Bond theme. From all accounts, Eilish and O'Connell time spent working on No Time To Die was the culmination of a lifelong dream, and Bond fans certainly know to never to say never.
Source: Variety
