Birds of a Feather (Billie Eilish song)

"Birds of a Feather" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish. It impacted US contemporary hit radio on July 2, 2024, as the second single from her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, through Darkroom and Interscope Records.

Background and release
Eilish first previewed the song on May 13, 2024, through a teaser trailer for the upcoming third season of Netflix series Heartstopper. The song was one of the three songs teased ahead of the album release. In an interview with Apple Music, Eilish revealed that the song contains the highest belt of her career.

The song served as the second single to Hit Me Hard and Soft, released on July 2, 2024.

Composition
Described as a "breezy neo-new-wave jam", "Birds of a Feather" borrows its title from the English proverb "birds of a feather flock together". In an "emotionally vulnerable" tone, Eilish sings about falling in love with a person that she wants to "stick together" with. The love to her significant other brings her to tears and begs the lover to never end their relationship.

Commercial performance
After its release as an album cut, the song debuted at number eight on the daily Spotify Top 200 Global Songs accumulating 7,696,100 streams. The fourth most streamed song on the album that day. Through time the song would maintain its popularity staying within the platform's top 10 most streamed songs. After its release as the second single from Hit Me Hard and Soft (2024) streaming increased peaking at number one dethroning "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter and gaining 8,525,570 streams on the day of July 7, 2024.

Following the release of Hit Me Hard and Soft, "Birds of a Feather" impacted at number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the highest placing from the album after "Chihiro" peaking at number twelve and the lead single from the album "Lunch" at number five on the issue dated June 1, 2024. In its fourth week the then album cut jumped from the eleventh to the ninth spot on the chart becoming its peak position. Due to the song's good performance "Birds of a Feather" was released on July 2 as the second single from the album.

In the United Kingdom, "Birds of a Feather" debuted at number nine the week of the album's release. Placed third best after "Chihiro" at seven and "Lunch" at two. Following its increase of popularity the song reached its peak of four in its third week.

Internationally the song has peaked within the top 10 in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Phillipines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland and peaked at number one in Malaysia.