'You Should See Me in a Crown' by Billie Eilish

On Wednesday, July 18, 2018, American teenage singer Billie Eilish released a song titled “You Should See Me in a Crown.” The song was first teased by Billie back in June. The song’s artwork was also leaked two days before the sudden drop of the song. The cover art features a crown and spiders, which is a recurrent theme on Billie’s instagram. This song offers a very different sound compared to the rest of her music. “You Should See Me in a Crown” has a heavy beat mostly offering bass throughout the choruses. The song starts out light with very little instrumental like we are used to with her music, but as soon as the chorus starts we are switched to a new style from Billie. The transition from the heavy chorus to lighter verses are executed very well and help the song tell a story, which aids in defining the meaning of the song.

People are theorizing “you should see me in a crown” could be on Billie’s highly anticipated upcoming debut album as it is a reference to how she’s gaining fame and how her ego is getting bigger as the fame increases.

The song has a lot of metaphors that can be linked together that many people are pointing out. For example, there are lyrics in the song that mention playing cards—people are saying this is referring to casino games and how they are seen as bad luck to many people. Another metaphor in the song is from the lyric, “blood on a marble wall”—people believe this could be referring to how something pure was ruined or destroyed. They also think it could be talking about something luxurious was ruined. These are both linked to how someone gains power or their ego grows and they believe they could do no wrong. In the first verse, there’s a reference to one of her first hit songs, titled “Ocean Eyes,” which talks about how she fell for them because they were calming, but this time the ocean eyes belong to her and how they are helping her with her power and “taking over the world.” Some people are also saying the title of the song came from a quote from BBC’s show, Sherlock, the quote being, “In a world of locked rooms, the man with the key is king. And honey, you should see me in a crown.” From the song, I gather that she is struggling with not letting her ego “take over,” but she fails and let’s the sudden popularity and fame take over. I gather this from how Billie mentions trying to bite her tongue and not say something.

Billie presents many songs about her struggling with being herself, like in “idontwannabeyouanymore,” but in other songs like “COPYCAT,” she talks about how she feels superior. “You Should See Me in a Crown” happens to be reminiscent of “COPYCAT” as it tells how she feels powerful and dreams of being it. Overall, this song tells how Billie feels like she’s gaining power and how she’s getting somewhere in the music industry. Though, Billie has mentioned many times she sometimes writes songs as if she’s telling a story from a character’s point of view, so we may never know if this is truly how Billie feels.

Overall, I personally love this song and so does her fan base. The theories based off what this song could mean only keep growing. I’m excited to see where she goes as a person, her music, and her tone goes as we get closer to her release of her debut album.