“True Blue” by Billie Eilish
“True Blue” is a song that Billie Eilish began performing in 2016, when she would have been 14 years old. And the reason we’re pointing that out is because with the sophisticated way it metaphorically speaks on heartbreak, you would think the lyrics are relayed from someone older and accordingly more experienced than that.
But it was Finneas, who was significantly older at the time at the age of 19, who wrote “True Blue” after all.
That said, the color “blue”, is a musical/poetic context, is most often used to point to the idea of depression, as it does in this piece. And what Billie is relatedly saying in the chorus is something like she never thought it would be this difficult to get over her ex.
That’s why we find the vocalist earlier in the song engaging in activities such as knocking on his door but then running away before anyone answers. Or going back to the chorus, as she put it she has “tried to live in black and white” since they parted ways. That reads like another way of saying that Eilish thought getting her ex would be a lot simpler than it actually is. Indeed in contrast, as relayed, doing so is proving to be impossible.
Also as such songs tend to go, the vocalist’s emotional anguish is exacerbated by the fact that her ex does not seem to be suffering post-breakup, while she rather is internally wrecked.
So this is more or less your quintessential heartbreak song, though it does have that unique lyrical tinge that we’ve come to expect from the works of Billie and Finneas.
When was “True Blue” released?
“True Blue” is a song that Billie Eilish is on record as having performed four times, between late 2016 and early 2017. That would have been after the release of her breakthrough single “Ocean Eyes” (2016) though well before the issuance of “When We All Asleep, Where Do We Go” (2019), i.e. her ridiculously-successful debut LP.
To note, as of this writing in late 2022, “True Blue” has yet to be formally released. However, what is known is that Billie – buttressed by Finneas who wrote and produced the song – did go to the studio to record it at some juncture. And that’s because said recording leaked earlier in 2022.
