hostage

“hostage” is the eight track from Eilish’s 2017 EP: “don’t smile at me”. Released in August of 2017, “hostage” tells the tale of a psychotic lover (narrated by Eilish) and how she wants to keep her lover “like a hostage”.

The lyrics are dark, brutal and sinister – a theme which listeners have to expect from Eilish and her hard hitting music. “I wanna be alone / Alone with you – does that make sense? / I wanna steal your soul / And hide you in my treasure chest” – these are the opening lyrics of the track, leading to Eilish telling her lover that she wants to “crawl inside your veins”, further strengthen the eerie feeling of the track, despite it being a lov track.

The “hostage” music video was released on the 8th October 2018 on Eilish’s official YouTube channel. Directed by Henry Scholfield, the video starts off with Eilish in a plain white room surrounded by white objects and her lover. The backgrounds change throughout the track, from a blue, lilac and yellow. The pair dance in a romantic, loving yet aggressive away – almost as if they are fighting but cannot get away from one another. The end of the video consists of Eilish wrapping up her lover with strings from the wall and ceiling, slowly ascending up towards Eilish as she sits in the same spot as the beginning of the video, with the screen getting darker and darker. The music video was choreographed by Matty Peacock. As of August 2019, the music video has almost 45 million views and over 1.1 million likes.

Release Date: 11th August 2017

Songwriter/s: Billie Eilish & FINNEAS

Producer/s: FINNEAS

Label/s: Interscope Records & Darkroom Records

Music Video Release Date: 8th October 2018

Music Video Director: Henry Scholfield

Music Video Choreographer: Matty Peacock

Certifications: “hostage” received Gold certification in Australia and Platinum in Canada.