HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 10: Billie Eilish attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, … [+]
WIREIMAGE
Billie Eilish won her second Academy Award just over a week ago, becoming the youngest two-time champion in the show’s history. She and her brother Finneas scored the Best Original Song prize for their Barbie single “What Was I Made For?,” and they also performed the smash as well. All that attention led to a sizable gain in sales for the tune, which will almost certainly improve on the Billboard charts in a few hours.
“What Was I Made For?” sold 5,300 copies between Sunday and Monday, March 10 and 11. The Oscars were held on that Sunday, and the following day is when most people flocked to sales platforms and streaming sites to consume the tunes they just heard on the highly-watched ceremony.
Eilish’s single enjoyed a massive jump in sales thanks to its Oscar evening. “What Was I Made For?” gained by more than 700% when looking only at purchases, when comparing the night of the Academy Awards and the following day with the same period from a week before, according to Billboard.
“What Was I Made For?” was also a huge streaming win once again following the Academy Awards. The melancholy pop tune racked up 2.2 million plays on platforms like Spotify and AppleAAPL +0.6% Music. That sum was up 27% from the week prior.
It’s not unusual that “What Was I Made For?” gained the most ground when looking at pure purchases versus streams. Most popular songs can continue to rack up healthy streaming totals for weeks, months, or even years after they’re released. The vast majority of bestsellers in the U.S.—both albums and tracks–sell well in their first week or two, and then begin to decline. “What Was I Made For?” has been out for many months, so it’s not shocking that it wasn’t selling in huge sums until its post-Oscars spike.
With at least 5,300 copies sold in just two days, “What Was I Made For?” is certainly going to improve on at least Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart. The ranking will be refreshed in a few hours, at which point Eilish could break back into the top 10. Currently, the No. 10 bestselling song in America, Muni Long’s “Made For Me,” only sold 3,440 copies in the latest reported tracking period.
