‘TV’: the melancholic Billie Eilish track that tackles US politics with a Roe v Wade reference
During her first post-election concerts in America, Billie Eilish addressed her audience with despair. “Someone who hates women so, so deeply is about to be the president of the United States of America,” she said, attempting to transition authentic disappointment into real unity, despite the circumstances. Prefacing with an unfiltered statement about the electoral outcome, she said, “This song is for all the women out there,” before launching into a rendition of ‘TV’.
Videos of Eilish performing this song at her latest shows have been doing the rounds on social media, but one seemed to cut deeper than the rest. During one particular show, she began her performance of ‘TV’ as usual, emitting deep-seated melancholic emotions underscored by the subtext of recent political affairs. However, this time, she stopped after singing the line, “The internet’s gone wild watching movie stars on trial/ While they’re overturning Roe v. Wade.”
Eilish didn’t keep her feelings a secret before the song, as evidenced by her direct address of the re-election of Donald Trump. However, she did introduce the song by letting other women and victims of abuse know that she understood what they were going through, sharing trepidation under the authority of someone who hasn’t always proved he stands by and with women. Before performing ‘TV’, she also said that she was performing the song to tackle “the abuse that exists in this world upon women and a lot of the experiences that I have gone through and people I know have gone through.”
She added, “To tell you the truth, I’ve never met one single woman who doesn’t have a story of abuse. Not one.”
The song captures the immense shutdown and disillusionment that follows intense heartbreak. Eilish sings about wanting to do nothing except watch TV—not even talk—if it means not having to face her sadness head-on. In the song, she chooses the allure of withdrawing and putting walls up instead of processing pain and moving on. During her self-induced removal from ‘real’ life, she refers to the potential of her past romance catching her on TV as she flits through various images of celebrities and politicians on the screen.
The reference to Roe v Wade occurs after her nod to the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial, written just a few weeks before the Supreme Court officially decided to reverse it. At the time, Eilish had no idea she would be writing words as “a placeholder of doom” and even held on to a fraction of hope that the decision wouldn’t turn out the way that it did. However, what followed was far worse than audible frustration—silence. “There was almost no even reaction,” she told Zane Lowe, adding, “It’s a really scary world right now.”
Eilish has undoubtedly—and perhaps unintentionally—immersed herself in important contemporary conversations more openly since her Barbie stint, which scraped the lines of patriarchal entities as unflinchingly as a car being keyed. During one pivotal moment, America Ferrera responds to Margot Robbie’s famed “I’m not pretty anymore” statement with a series of societal call-outs, including how women often don’t feel good enough due to the misogyny so heavily engrained in society.
Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’ also continues to attract award nominations and recognitions in virtuosic song categories, mainly for its address of the woman’s role in society and relationships, but the latest ‘TV’ performances—particularly the one she couldn’t physically finish—signposts a particularly emotive time for the singer, who, like many, has decided she has had enough with the perpetuation of sexism and abuse in American positions of power.
“It’s a really scary world right now,” Eilish told Lowe, but in between the lines, it’s easy to read into what she meant. Unable to get through performances with fear and upset taking over in obvious and physical ways, Eilish echoes the sentiment many women are subjected to right now. With uncertainties about the future of women’s rights—and the broader legitimisation of misogynistic worldviews—Eilish represents every American woman unsure of how to feel in the face of a person whose presidency hints at a deeper darkness, where safety is fickle, and anyone can utter the formidable remark, “Your body, my choice.”
