What is “Ocean Eyes” by Billie Eilish about?
“Ocean Eyes” is about falling in love with someone with ocean blue eyes. Billie Eilish’s debut single, “Ocean Eyes,” is a love song in which the speaker is fascinated with the love interest’s “ocean eyes.” Their eyes are literally blue like the ocean and metaphorically as deep, dangerous, and captivating. Everything about the love interest draws Eilish in, like the tide pulling her under, and she can’t help falling for them, even though she knows she might get hurt. She’s never felt this strongly about anyone before. Eilish isn’t just attracted to the person’s looks—she’s fascinated by their mind and even compares it to a diamond, something beautiful but hard to break into. She knows them well enough to appreciate what’s on the inside. The end of the song implies that the love interest eventually leaves, but the speaker still cannot forget how they (and their ocean eyes) impacted her. This love is likely one she’ll carry with her for the rest of her life.
“Ocean Eyes” Lyric Analysis
Eilish is captivated by someone with eyes as deep and blue as the ocean. The song opens with Eilish saying she’s been watching the love interest for a while. Here she first uses the metaphor “ocean eyes,” implying that their eyes are as blue, captivating, and dangerous as the ocean, but she also compares their eyes to other things: “Burning cities and napalm skies / Fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes.” Eilish is completely captivated by this person and sees the world in the colors of their eyes, but she’s also aware that falling for them could be dangerous. Eilish is from LA, so “napalm skies” may be a reference to the colorful sunsets that occur in the city due to the smog. Mathias Rosenzweig of Vogue stated that Eilish compares “love to falling off a cliff” and that she is “surrounded by the warlike intensity of napalm skies.”
She feels powerless to stop her feelings. In the chorus, Eilish sings “No fair / You really know how to make me cry / When you give me those ocean eyes.” The speaker thinks it isn’t fair that the love interest has so much power over her. Like the real ocean, their “ocean eyes” pull her in—she’s powerless to stop it. The love interest’s eyes express so much emotion that the speaker herself feels like crying. When she looks at them, she realizes how much she doesn’t want to lose them. Eilish also sings “I’m scared / I’ve never fallen from quite this high.” This metaphor implies that she has never fallen in love with anyone this hard. She feels like she’s literally falling off a cliff into the ocean.
She’s also fascinated by the love interest’s mind. Eilish opens verse 2 with, “I’ve been walking through a world gone blind / Can’t stop thinking of your diamond mind.” The love interest is so special to the speaker that the rest of the world seems dull by comparison. The love interest’s mind is like a diamond—beautiful, but hard to break into. The speaker likes them for who they are on the inside. In the second half of the verse, Eilish sings, “Careful creature made friends with time / He left her lonely with a diamond mind / And those ocean eyes.” This implies that the relationship has ended, but the speaker will never forget the love interest and what made them so fascinating. Can’t get enough Billie Eilish? Check out our interpretations of her songs “Chihiro,” “Wildflower,” and “Birds of a Feather.”
Facts About “Ocean Eyes”
Eilish released “Ocean Eyes” at only 13 years old. Billie Eilish released “Ocean Eyes” on SoundCloud in 2015, when she was only 13 years old. The song quickly went viral, hitting no. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100. Eilish went on to feature the song on her 2017 EP Don’t Smile at Me and the soundtrack to the film Everything, Everything.
Her brother, Finneas, originally wrote the song for his band. Billie Eilish didn’t actually write “Ocean Eyes” herself. Her brother, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and producer, Finneas actually wrote the song for his high school band The Slightys. However, he later realized it was better suited for his sister’s vocals. In 2015, he said, “[Billie] brought life to it that I couldn’t believe.” In 2016, Eilish recalled when Finneas introduced her to the song: “He’d been doing it with his band before, but of course I’d heard it because I was right next door. I sang it, and we both loved it. It’s just a beautiful song, and Finneas is an amazing writer.”
The song’s bridge is actually the chorus in reverse. In an interview around the time of the song’s release, Finneas revealed that the bridge of “Ocean Eyes” is the chorus in reverse: “Billie was sending her friend a Snapchat and put the reverse filter on while we were working on the song, and it sounded sick. So I took every vocal from the chorus and reversed them and washed them out with reverb to create the bridge—crashed my computer.”
What are ocean eyes?
Ocean eyes are deep, mesmerizing eyes. While the term gained popularity from Eilish’s song, she isn’t the only one to use it. If someone has ocean eyes, it means they have deep, mesmerizing eyes that are typically blue or green in color. The term is a compliment, acknowledging the eyes’ beauty.
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