Bad Guy

On March 29, 2019, Billie Eilish released Bad Guy as the fifth single from her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. The track immediately stood out for its minimalist electro-pop sound, built on a bass-heavy beat and Eilish's whispery, deadpan delivery. Co-written with her brother Finneas O'Connell, who also produced it, the song toys with power dynamics in relationships. Eilish flips the script by casting herself as the menacing figure, mocking the idea of a tough persona. The music video, directed by Dave Meyers, leans into that playful menace with surreal scenes: Eilish bursts through a yellow paper wall, places her Invisalign in a man's hand, and rides a toy car while men do push-ups with her sitting on their backs.

The song became a commercial powerhouse. It topped the Billboard Hot 100, famously ending the record 19-week reign of Lil Nas X's Old Town Road. Bad Guy hit number one in 17 countries, including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and peaked at number two in the UK. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry named it the best-performing global single of 2019, with 19.5 million combined sales and track-equivalent streams. It earned a Diamond certification from the RIAA, the first song by a female artist born this century to do so in the US, and tenfold platinum in Australia.

At the 62nd Grammy Awards in 2020, Bad Guy won Record of the Year and Song of the Year, contributing to Eilish becoming the youngest artist to sweep all four general field categories in one night. A remix featuring Justin Bieber extended the song's reach, and covers by artists like Dove Cameron kept it in the cultural conversation. By 2022, the track had surpassed 2 billion streams on Spotify, Eilish's first to reach that milestone. [edit]