What does "xanny" by Billie Eilish mean?

Music Video Meaning of “xanny“

(The following blog post is a transcript created by Xalma of the below video.)

Today we're talking about 'xanny' by Billie Eilish; she just dropped a new music video that she's the director of for, and there is a lot to go over here; but essentially, the core message of the song has to do with drug abuse, but it's also more than that.

Billie has explained the song lyrics in a couple of places; but I want to really talk about the imagery in the music video; if you've seen the music video, which if you haven't, you could go to the end of this article for a link to the music video, otherwise this might not make sense; but essentially she looks like she's in a padded room, she's sitting on this bench, and the bench looks padded, the wall behind her looks padded, and everything is almost white; so it seems to be a reference to hospitals and mental illness. The music video is all one shot; and then, as she's sitting there singing, all of a sudden, hands come up from the sides of the screen with cigarettes, and just put them out on her face, leaving burn marks of course; and there's probably by the end of it like 6-7 maybe more different burn marks just spread across her face; in at the very end, she gets up she walks away, and this puff of smoke comes from the sides.

Now I think for Billie Eilish, the song feels like it has a very deep personal significance from what I've read in a few interviews; I think she's saying she's lost friends to drug abuse; Xanax being one of the most popular ones, which is being pushed by soundcloud rappers right now; but she isn't just talking about Xanax, she is also talking about cigarettes, she's talking about alcohol; we're going to get to the music video imagery in a second; but for now, let's read what she's saying in these verses, and in these lyrics in the chorus.

Lyrics Meaning of “xanny“

Chorus

I'm in their secondhand smoke

Which interesting fact, go listen to the song to get what I mean; she actually wanted the music that sounds kind of like "singing into the fan noise" kind of bass to represent the feeling of being in somebody's secondhand smoke.

Well, check out this little clip; she'll explain that and few things regarding the music production side of things better.

Still just drinking canned coke
I don't need a Xanny to feel better
On designated drives home
Only one who's not stoned
Don't give me a Xanny, now or ever

So it's this very strong anti-drug sentiment, she's not stoned, she's not smoking a cigarette, she's not getting drunk, she's not doing xanax; and on that level, it feels very straightforward; it sounds like she's just saying "hey, don't do drugs"; and a lot of times, lyrics like that, and songs like that, they just don't do well; they come across as preachy, or it's like saying "I am better than you, because I figured out the things not to do"; but Billie Eilish had to walk a fine line, otherwise she would've sounded like she wasn't singing a song, but was instead giving a PSA; and you've probably heard songs like that, we're the singers felt like telling us how to live our lives, instead of just writing a dang song; but for Billie, I think that this song actually means something to her, she refers in some interviews to having possibly lost friends to drug abuse, and the performance helps mediate some of the preachiness; and there are couple of parts that get really interesting, and we'll be talking about them.

Verse One

What is it about them?
I must be missing something
They just keep doing nothing
Too intoxicated to be scared

That's actually interesting; like you would think from all the things we've heard from Billie, everything she's talked about regarding her mental health; she's shown us a lot of terrifying images in her music videos, whether it's spiders coming from her mouth, or her becoming a spider, all of this crazy stuff; but here, she's saying these people are "too intoxicated be scared"; and so you would think, and based on what we know of Billie; wouldn't she want to not be scared?! wouldn't taking drugs so that she could escape from all of that for a moment seem like something she would want to do?! I think it just makes this a much more powerful statement, by being who she is, and saying this by putting that line in it, that is the key line.

Here is what she had to say about this in an interview she had,

The day we wrote 'xanny', the night before I had been with a group of my friends and they all got drunk and were throwing up and I wasn’t. They were Juuling, throwin’ up, drinking, kept throwing up, kept drinking more, kept throwing up more, and then kept drinking. What was really weird to me is that nobody cared. The first girl that got drunk and started throwing up, they just held her hair back. She was throwing up everywhere and nobody was fazed. It was so weird, I was just like, “What? This is normal? That’s normal for you guys.” Watching my friends become completely not who they were. Watching their personalities crumple up and fall.

Better off without them
They're nothing but unstable
Bring ashtrays to the table
And that's about the only thing they share

As scared as she might be, or whatever nightmares that she might have, and the things that she thinks about, she still thinks that her life would be worse off even if she was too intoxicated to be scared. Billie is looking for more healthy and positive ways to better herself, and to work through the difficult situations regarding mental health that she's in; so the lyrics are super interesting.

Verse Two

Wakin' up at sundown (Ooh)
They're late to every party (Ooh)
Nobody's ever sorry (Ooh)
Too inebriated now to dance
Morning as they come down (Come down)
Their pretty heads are hurting (Hurting)
They're awfully bad at learning (Learning)
Make the same mistakes, blame circumstance

There's not a whole bunch more, she just basically describes other situations in which they are doing drugs, being late to the parties, being hungover, or her being the one who's the designated driver, and she's just like "I don't understand why this is so great? you all seem either miserable, or out of your minds"

If we look at the music video itself, there's very focused imagery, so a few specific things. One bit seems like she has natural-coloured hair; I don't know if we need to draw a ton of something from that, but at the very least, it seems to be showing a sign of vulnerability, taking off the outer shell, and being who you are for a moment; and so we can expect that these lyrics, and her performance are coming from her heart as a result. The next big thing is that she's kind of in this padded room; and I think that is a reminder for us of the mental health theme that we see throughout her music; and so what she's talking about comes from the context of who she is, and the way she struggles with mental health issues, you know? And then finally, we have the cigarettes that burn on her face; I think with those, the imagery could be much deeper than this, there could be more to it, and I would love to see an interview with Billie Eilish where she talks about them; and for Billie, if you're reading this, I'd love to interview you about this and many of your other songs, and how you construct them.

For the basic idea, maybe we can just take this very surface level, she keeps getting burned by these substances, they are not something that you're really able to control, at some point they start hurting you as you're using them; and I think she's really raising this question of "why do people keep those harmful things around them?"; and even if she doesn't use, she's still being hurt by them, through her friends who might use them, or people she knows and who she cares about. At the end as she walks off we see what I assume to be secondhand puffs of smoke from the side, to sort of emphasise that fact, and to say "look, the smoke doesn't look so good, right?"

Billie kind of underscores this in an interview article, she says at one point that this song is not so much a "don't do drugs, kids" kind of message; it's actually deeper than that for her; she says "I have never done drugs, I’ve never smoked anything in my life, I know people around you doing that shit makes you want to, but you don’t have to, the song’s message is less ‘don’t do drugs’; it’s more ‘be safe'. I don’t want my friends to die any more"

I think that is part of what saves the whole thing from being preachy; she's not just coming out there attacking substances, which is a fine message, but doesn't always make an interesting song; and she's saying it's more about caring for people, and saying like "look, I'm questioning whether I should do something like this, and maybe you should do as well"

I think it's a cool song, and it's a cool music video; I would really like to hear what you guys have to say about it; Billie Eilish is obviously doing a phenomenal job with the things that she creates, stepping out into directing this is really cool, and she deserves all the fans and success that she has.

Guys, go ahead and check out the music video for yourself, and let me know if there is anything you would like to add too.