“Bellyache” is a track from Billie Eilish’s debut extended play titled ‘don’t smile at me’ released on August 2017. Even after her massively successful debut studio album ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?‘ her debut EP still stands to be one of the best works done by Billie Eilish and her brother FINNEAS.
Billie’s debut EP ‘don’t smile at me,’ also contained other hits such as “idontwannabeyouanymore,” “ocean eyes,” “COPYCAT,” and more. Amongst them, “bellyache” holds a special place as a track that is defining Billie Eilish as an artist.
The lyrics to “Bellyache,” written by both Billie and Finneas, talk about her murderous tendencies. Billie explicitly details about killing her friends, her lover, and what she even does with the corpses and what goes through her mind in doing so. In an interview, Billie Eilish explained her perspective on the song;
“[“Bellyache” is] flat-out a song about murder. We have a bunch of songs like that: crazy stories about these fictional [situations]. We like to write about stuff we’re going through and things that people relate to, but it’s also really fun to put on a character and act a certain way. That character [in the song] isn’t me—but it also is. The song is really about doing terrible things and not really knowing [why]. We have this whole idea about it—like, you’re doing these terrible things and then you’re like, “Wait, what am I doing? Why did I just do that? Where is my mind? Maybe it’s in the gutter!“
Watch “Bellyache” Music Video by Billie Eilish
Download “Bellyache” on Apple Music and Amazon
The music video shows Billie Eilish dressed in all Yellow pulling a cart full of black garbage bags in a deserted highway. The garbage bags look filled, resembling the “lay of body” parts of the people whom Billie has killed. Or it could also be the money she has stolen from her victims. At the end of the video, Billie Eilish gets caught to a solemn police officer with whom they engage in an intense staring contest. The wilting sunflower on the road resembles Billie Eilish’s future as she gets caught red-handed to the police.
The term “bellyache” here refers to an unsettling feeling in her stomach. This feeling is likely due to her inner-self not being able to agree with what she has done–murder her friends. In the lyrics, Billie says she thought she would have felt better by murdering the people she loves and cares, but it has not. The guilty consciousness of her acts are now weighing on Billie now and this causes an unsettling feeling in her belly.
‘Noose’ is a knotted rope used to commit suicide, and Billie is saying that although she is pretending that she is okay with her actions, she knows it is a noose around her neck.
Let us know what you think about “Bellyache” by Billie Eilish in the comments below. Read the full lyrics next.
