CHIHIRO
Producer
CHIHIRO Lyrics
To take my love away
When I come back around, will I know what to say?
Said you won't forget my name
Not today, not tomorrow
Kinda strange, feelin' sorrow
I got change (Yup), you could borrow (Borrow)
When I come back around, will I know what to say?
Not today, maybe tomorrow
[Chorus]
Open up the door, can you open up the door?
I know you said before you can't cope with any more
You told me it was war, said you'd show me what's in store
I hope it's not for sure, can you open up the door?
[Refrain]
Did you take
My love away
From me? Me
Me
[Verse 2]
Saw your seat at the counter when I looked away
Saw you turn around, but it wasn't your face
Said, "I need to be alone now, I'm takin' a break"
How come when I rеturned, you were gonе away?
I don't, I don't know why I called
I don't know you at all
I don't know you
Not at all
I don't, I don't know why I called
I don't know you at all
I don't know you
[Refrain]
Did you take
My love away
From me? Me
[Interlude]
And that's when you found me
[Verse 3]
I was waitin' in the garden
Contemplatin', beg your pardon
But there's a part of me that recognizes you
Do you feel it too?
When you told me it was serious
Were you serious? Mm
They told me they were only curious
Now it's serious, mm
Open up the door, can you open up the door?
I know you said before you can't cope with any more
You told me it was war, said you'd show me what's in store
I hope it's not for sure, can you open up the door?
[Post-Chorus]
Wringing my hands in my lap
And they tell me it's all been a trap
And you don't know if you'll make it back
I said, "No, don't say that"
[Outro]
(Wringing my hands in my lap)
(And you tell me it's all been a trap)
(And you don't know if you'll make it back)
(But I said, "No, don't say that")
(Wringing my hands in my lap)
(Tell me it's all been a trap)
(Don't know if you'll make it back)
(Don't say that)
Hm-hm
About
“CHIHIRO,” the third track on HIT ME HARD AND SOFT sees Billie feeling unseen and misunderstood as she searches for spiritual and physical reconnection with the world. The title is a reference to the 荻野千尋 (Chihiro “Sen” Ogino), of Spirited Away – an Oscar-winning film from スタジオジブリ (Studio Ghibli) released in 2001 which follows a girl who “learned to face her fears by developing a heightened understanding and appreciation of life.”
During an interview in 2019, Billie professed her love to 宮崎駿 (Hayao Miyazaki)’s filmography (the director of Studio Ghibli) and how she fell in love with the dragon from Spirited Away:
I owe most of [the artistic direction from WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?] to Spirited Away and Miyazaki. Just the way that all that animation is, like No Face…it’s like so “spirit away”…it is so weirdly unrealistic but realistic.
On June 13, 2024, Billie made an Instagram post with a video of her recording “CHIHIRO”. In the caption she states:
nov 17, 2022 making CHIHIRO. had just written this melody & made this video to send to a friend :P
This reveals that she has been working on this track since November 17, 2022 and probably even before that. Both the song and the album it was included on came out on May 17, 2024, one and a half years after its recording process.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
In the Zane Lowe interview with Apple Music, Billie expresses how cool it was to write and record “CHIHIRO” on the spot:
[Recording ‘CHIHIRO’] was one of the coolest moments of the whole album. I filmed the entire making of the album… There’s this one video where I’m sitting there, and Finneas is coming up with what is one the coolest produced songs of ours, in my opinion. He’s just like, making it up. I’m just improvising – I don’t have any memory of this – and I just went ‘And that’s where you found me | I was waiting in the garden’ – it just came right out. Immediately I was like ‘Open up the door, can you open up the door?’
During the same interview, Finneas replies to Billie regarding that line:
‘Open up the door’ was a huge win. And it’s ambiguous. And I love an ambiguous line.
Billie revealed her love to 宮崎駿 (Hayao Miyazaki)’s filmography, the creator and director of スタジオジブリ (Studio Ghibli) during an interview with VICE in 2019
I owe so much of it to Miyazaki and like that whole just like so weirdly unrealistic but realistic, when FINNEAS saw Spirited Away, my brother, he was so scared from the parents turning into pigs that he had to go to therapy for like years because of it I get fucked him up, and I was like “Yeah,” like I remember watching and being like “this is hard” and I watch it over and over and over…I thought it was so dope and I had the biggest crush on the dragon in that movie
The artistic style to Billie’s MV of “my future” is also said by many as being influenced by Studio Ghibli’s works.
The peaceful water motifs recall Studio Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro. And the explosion of magical realism at the end, where colors and strange plants blossom and send Eilish into the sky, feels like Spirited Away.
I came up with a video idea for CHIHIRO when I was walking through 30 Rock at SNL over the winter, because I was listening in my headphones […] to it, and we were just like, walking through the back entrance of the building and […] I was just picturing stuff and I came up with this whole kind of vibe of a music video from that experience
— via triple j interview
- 11.SKINNY
- 12.LUNCH
- 13.CHIHIRO
- 15.WILDFLOWER
- 16.THE GREATEST
- 18.THE DINER
- 19.BITTERSUITE
- 20.BLUE
