“wish you were gay” is a song about being rejected, says Billie Eilish. For the lack of a better reason for her to be rejected by the guy she likes, she hopes that his reason for not liking him is because he is gay.
In an Instagram live session, Billie Eilish explained the meaning and inspiration behind the song;
“I wrote this song about a guy that really was not interested in me, and it made me feel horrible. So, this song is called “
i wish you were gay,” and that’s so not meant to be offensive in any way… It literally means that I wish he was gay ’cause he didn’t like me for an actual reason, instead of the fact that he didn’t like me. And guess what he just came out to me like acouple weeks ago. So I wrote the song and made him f*ck a dude. I’m f*cking proud bro except not really though because I was really into him, like so into him, he’s so hot oh my god.”
This song appears on Billie’s upcoming debut studio album ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?‘ expected at the end of March 2019. Billie previously premiered the first single off of the album “bury a friend.”
Listen to the song below.
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Billie Eilish assumes a very soft-spoken vocal track on this song as she mutters about her failed romance and how she curses him under her breath.
Lyrics Review and Song Meaning of “wish you were gay”
Verse 1
The first verse of the song is an intro to her conundrum. She is not doing well without him. It sickens her to look at him from a distance and not have his attention.
These lines also form a perfect countdown from 6 to 1 as she steps towards the chorus of the song. She starts off with “6 words you never understood,” moves on to “5 words you never say,” to “4 days…,” to “3’s a crowd,” to “2 was us,” and “1 slipped away.”
The last few lines of the first verse builds on the popular quote “two’s company, three’s a crowd.” Three was two guys and Billie, two is Billie and her crush, and one that slipped away is her crush’s crush.
Chorus
In the chorus of “wish you were gay,” Billie tries to explain why she is angry at him. She just wanted to make him feel good in her arms. But he did not bat an eye towards her. This hurt her and she thought that he had to be gay to not like her back. And turns out, he is!
Verse 2
Another countdown occurs in the second verse; this time from 12 to 6.
Billie Eilish explains how her attempts to make conversations with him went. It was all a bunch of ‘hey’s, even that mostly from her side. A chat in “blue” could mean that in one sense, it was going nowhere, dull and dead. In another sense, it could refer to that on iPhone messenger, text messages sent by you appears in blue while messages received appears in grey. Hence, a blue chat could be meaning that it’s all Billie’s messages in the entire conversation!
Bridge
Billie Eilish further comforts herself by presuming that the only reason he is not interested in her because she is not of his preferred sexual orientation. He is a homosexual, she is a heterosexual.
This song is so soothing to listen to that it makes us forget that she is singing out of heartache. A perfect song for a rainy day, don’t you think? Leave a comment below and share this article with your friends.
Complete Lyrics to “wish you were gay” by Billie Eilish