Billie Eilish and Finneas win Best Original Song Oscar for No Time To Die, as Hans Zimmer accepts Best Original Score award in a bathrobe

By Ben Rogerson
published

Bond theme was a big hit with the Academy voters

Billie Eilish Finneas Oscars
(Image credit: Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images))

Not that it’s what anyone is talking about, but Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas have scooped the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 2022 Academy Awards. They took the prize for their theme to No Time To Die, the 25th James Bond movie, which was released in 2021.

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Billie Eilish and Finneas at No Time To Die premiere

(Image credit: Ian Gavan/Getty Images for EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Universal Pictures)

The making of Billie Eilish’s No Time To Die Bond theme: “Finneas came up with this chord progression, and we were just immediately like, ‘Oh!’”

Accepting the award, Eilish described the moment as “like a dream,” and thanked her “007 family,” which included composer Hans Zimmer and guitarist Johnny Marr, both of whom contributed to the song.

Earlier, Eilish and Finneas had performed No Time To Die at the Oscars ceremony, complete with orchestral backing.

Discussing the song with BBC Breakfast before the film was released, Eilish revealed that, initially, the creative process didn’t run as smoothly as they’d hoped

“We had an intense amount of writer’s block as soon as we were called to action,” she recalled. “It was a miserable day in the studio. But that’s because of the studio, to be honest with you. We don’t work well in studios. It doesn’t do the same thing.”

In the end, the breakthrough came on a tour bus in Texas: “Finneas came up with this chord progression, and we were just immediately like, ‘Oh!’,” Eilish explained.

“I thought it was already a really smart idea [to choose Billie] before I’d even heard the song,” Marr told NME as he arrived at the BRIT Awards in February 2020 to perform No Time To Die. “I did a couple of shows with Billie last year, so I was well aware of what she did and knew her music. When I heard the song, I thought it was really brave. Really minimalist. Then the trick was to Bond-ify it without doing the obvious. It’s easy to be bombastic, but this was a case of less is more.” 

In the Best Original Score category, meanwhile, Hans Zimmer took the Oscar for his work on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Zimmer didn’t attend the ceremony as he’s currently on tour in Europe, but was pictured on Twitter wearing a bathrobe and clasping a fake statuette. It seems that his daughter woke him at 2am to tell him of his success, dragging him down to the hotel bar to celebrate.

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Ben Rogerson
Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.