BLUE
Producer
BLUE Lyrics
[Intro]
Mm, mm, mm
[Chorus]
I try to live in black and white, but I'm so blue
I'd like to mean it when I say I'm over you
But that's still not true (Blue)
And I'm still so blue, oh
[Verse]
I thought we were the same
Birds of a feather, now I'm ashamed
I told you a lie, désolée, mon amour
I'm tryin' my best, don't know what's in store
Open up the door (Blue)
In the back of my mind, I'm still overseas
A bird in a cage, thought you were made for me
[Chorus]
I try (I'm not what) to live in black and white, but I'm so blue (But I'm not what you need)
I'd like (Not what you need) to mean it when I say I'm over you
But that's still not true, true
And I'm still so bluе (And it's not true)
I'm true blue, truе blue
I'm true blue
(Blue) Mm, mm, mm
[Part II: BORN BLUE]
[Intro]
Ah-ah
Ah-ah
Ah-ah
Ah-ah
[Verse 1]
You were born bluer than a butterfly
Beautiful and so deprived of oxygen
Colder than your father's eyes
He never learned to sympathize with anyone
[Chorus]
I don't blame you
But I can't change you
Don't hate you (Don't hate you)
But we can't save you (But we can't save you)
[Verse 2]
You were born reachin' for your mother's hands
Victim of your father's plans to rule the world
Too afraid to step outside
Paranoid and petrified of what you've heard
But they could say the same 'bout me
I sleep 'bout three hours each night
Means only twenty-one a week now, now
And I could say the same 'bout you
Born blameless, grew up famous too
Just a baby born blue now, now
[Chorus]
I don't blame you
But I can't change you
Don't hate you
But we can't save you
[Bridge]
(Same 'bout me)
(I sleep 'bout three hours each night)
(Means only twenty-one a week now)
(Same 'bout me)
(I sleep 'bout three hours each night)
(Means only twenty-one a week now)
(Same 'bout me)
(I sleep 'bout three hours each night)
(Means only twenty-one a week now)
(Same 'bout me)
(I sleep 'bout three hours each night)
(Means only twenty-one a week now)
Ooh-ooh
It's over now
It's over now
It's over now
(Ah-ah-ah, ah)
About
“BLUE” is the tenth and final song featured on Billie Eilish’s third studio album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT.
This song is a reworked version of two of Eilish’s previously unreleased songs. The first song is “True Blue”, which Eilish and her brother, producer, and co-collaborator Finneas O'Connell recorded when they were fourteen and eighteen respectively. The full version of the demo was later leaked in February 2022, inspiring Eilish to work on it again. The other song is “Born Blue”, which was going to be featured as track six on Eilish’s 2021 album Happier Than Ever, but Eilish “just couldn’t figure it out.”
The first half of the song, which is the reworked “True Blue,” takes the melodies and chorus, while adding a verse that reminisces each track from the album. The second half, which is the reworked “Born Blue,” covers somebody who grew up in a cold-shouldered family and their personality now that they’ve grown up.
At the end of the song, Eilish says, “But when can I hear the next one?” It is rumored but unconfirmed fan-theory that HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is going to be a double album, one revolving around the color blue, the other red. This theory is called the “Ilomilo Theory” because of the colors of the characters in the 2010 video game Ilomilo and how Eilish has a song of the same title.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
During an interview with Zane Lowe, Billie says:
[…] We just tried to rework it (true blue) […] the verses never felt right, we couldn’t really crack it. And then Finneas started changing the chords and I started singing “Born Blue.” And then we had this realization: like ooh, you know what would be cool? We took both of these old songs, completely different parts of our lives, and resurrected them and made them into one song called “BLUE.”
During an interview with Zane Lowe on May 21, 2024, Billie said about the writing process:
[…]Blue so there’s a whole backstory on that song yeah which a lot of people know […] we really wanted to rewrite everything but the chorus and we didn’t really want to have like redo the whole song. We kind of just wanted to like have the hook and like some sort of verse, but we made that song when I was 14 and ‘Ocean Eyes’ had just come out and he [Finneas] was just like 18 and anyway, the lyrics have just kind of aged or whatever. We just wanted to rewrite them for lots of reasons and there was one day that we sat here and we rewrote those lyrics for like six hours straight. And we wrote several verses and we wrote many verses and many versions of each verse and it was so tedious and hard and we did not take a break and we were like “no, no, no, we need to rewrite it”. Like we’ll get there and we eventually finished it and I was driving home and you and I were like “I’m so glad we did that” and I was driving home and I listened to it I was like these are like some of the worst lyrics we’ve ever written. And that’s a kind of example of not take the time with it and just push it. […]
The verse that we ended up writing references every single song on the album.
- 11.SKINNY
- 12.LUNCH
- 13.CHIHIRO
- 15.WILDFLOWER
- 16.THE GREATEST
- 18.THE DINER
- 19.BITTERSUITE
- 20.BLUE
