Guess featuring billie eilish

The remix of "Guess" by Charli XCX featuring Billie Eilish is a multifaceted track that operates on several levels of meaning. On its surface, the song is a provocative and sexually charged anthem celebrating female desire and queer flirtation. Charli's verses are a playful taunt, daring the listener to speculate about her intimate life, using the color of her underwear as a central metaphor for private details. Billie's verse responds with an assertive confidence, claiming not just to know the answer but to have been a part of the secret, thereby shifting the dynamic from a one-way tease to a shared, intimate exchange between the two women. The line "Charli likes boys, but she knows I'd hit it" makes the queer undertones explicit, transforming the song into a bold and unapologetic expression of sapphic desire.

Beyond its flirty exterior, "Guess" serves as a sharp commentary on celebrity culture, parasocial relationships, and the public's intrusive obsession with the private lives of stars. The recurring theme of 'guessing' is aimed at fans and media who constantly speculate about every aspect of an artist's life. The outro, with lines like, "Still tryin' to guess the password to my Google Drive (Are you obsessed with me?)" and "You wanna guess the address of the party we're at (you really are not invited)," directly satirizes this invasive curiosity. By having Billie Eilish, an artist who has famously dealt with intense public scrutiny and stalkers, feature on the track, the song's critique of fame becomes even more pointed and self-aware. It's a defiant statement about controlling one's own narrative in the face of relentless public consumption.

The song opens with Charli XCX directly addressing Billie Eilish, immediately setting a conversational and intimate tone. Charli's first verse is a playful, provocative challenge to an unseen listener, who could be interpreted as a lover, a fan, or the public at large. She taunts them, asking if they want to guess the color of her underwear and what she has 'going on down there.' The lyrics are filled with teasing imagery, suggesting options like 'pretty in pink or all see-through' and referencing a 'brand-new lower-back tattoo,' a symbol often associated with a certain kind of rebellious femininity. She escalates the flirtation, describing a desire to have her underwear put in their mouth and pulled 'down south,' creating a highly charged and sensual atmosphere. The repetition of this desire emphasizes a confident and unapologetic ownership of her sexuality.

The chorus, delivered by Charli, transforms the tease into a direct, hedonistic command. The rapid-fire sequence of 'Try it, bite it, lick it, spit it / Pull it to the side and get all up in it' is a brazen and explicit invitation. She then expands the narrative beyond the purely physical, mentioning 'Wear 'em, post 'em, might remix it,' blurring the lines between private intimacy and public performance, a nod to the era of social media oversharing. She even gives a shoutout to producer The Dare. The chorus culminates with a reference to Billie Eilish's own hit song 'LUNCH,' with the line 'Eat 'em up for lunch, yeah, it's so delicious,' solidifying the connection between the two artists and their shared themes of female desire.

Billie Eilish's verse flips the script entirely. Where Charli's verse was a taunt, Billie's is a confident assertion of knowledge. She declares she doesn't need to guess about the underwear because she already knows the details: 'It's that lacy black pair with the little bows / The ones I picked out for you in Tokyo.' This line dramatically shifts the dynamic from a public tease to a private, shared secret between the two women. Billie reveals she saw the underwear peeking out and admits they are all she can think about, matching Charli's explicit desire with her own. Her chorus mirrors Charli's but with a personal twist, culminating in the instantly iconic line, 'Charli likes boys, but she knows I'd hit it / Charli, call me if you're with it.' This line makes the queer subtext of the song unequivocally explicit, reframing the entire track as a flirtatious, confident proposition between the two artists.

The bridge is a simple, hypnotic repetition of the word 'guess,' building a rhythmic tension that feels like a pulsing dance beat. The outro breaks the fourth wall completely. Charli and Billie take turns posing questions that mock obsessive fan culture and the relentless speculation surrounding celebrities' private lives. They ask if the listener wants to guess what they've been texting about, the password to a Google Drive, the address to their party, and finally, 'You wanna guess if we're serious about this song?' This ending serves as a satirical commentary on the very nature of their collaboration and the public's insatiable appetite for gossip, leaving the listener to ponder the line between authentic expression and calculated performance art.

The original version of "Guess" was first released on June 10, 2024, as a track on the deluxe edition of Charli XCX's sixth studio album, titled Brat and It's the Same but There's Three More Songs So It's Not. The song was co-written by Charli XCX (Charlotte Aitchison), Harrison Patrick Smith (The Dare), and Dylan Brady of 100 gecs, with The Dare handling production. The Dare explained that an early version didn't excite him or Charli, but he later created a 'jacked-up club version' for one of his parties, which Charli loved and adopted as the final direction for the track.

The high-profile remix featuring Billie Eilish was born out of a mutual admiration and a desire to collaborate that went back years. Finneas O'Connell, Billie's brother and primary collaborator, initiated the remix, knowing his sister was a big fan of Charli. Billie had mentioned in an interview prior to the release that she had recently participated in her first collaboration session with another artist in six years, expressing that she was nervous but found it fun. The remix was officially released on August 1, 2024, as a single from the remix album Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat. The accompanying music video, directed by Aidan Zamiri, was filmed just four days before its release, on July 28, 2024. The video features the duo at a chaotic house party and climbing a mountain of underwear, with 10,000 pairs of the undergarments later being donated to the charity 'I Support the Girls'.

The song is built on a relentless, driving rhythm with a fast tempo, characteristic of club and dance music. The beat is propulsive and serves as a foundation for the energetic vocal delivery. Lyrically, the song utilizes a relatively straightforward rhyme scheme within its verses, primarily couplets (AABB), such as "underwear" with "down there" and "see-through" with "tattoo." This simple scheme makes the lyrics catchy and direct.

The chorus, however, employs a more complex and rapid-fire internal rhyming and rhythmic structure. The lines "Try it, bite it, lick it, spit it" and "Wear 'em, post 'em, might remix it" use a staccato, percussive delivery that syncs perfectly with the electronic beat, making it a highly memorable hook. The rhythm of the vocals often mimics the pulsing electronic production, creating a tight synergy between the lyrical and musical elements. The bridge section, with its simple repetition of the word "guess," uses rhythm to build tension and hypnotic energy before the final outro, functioning almost like a dance breakdown.

Musically, "Guess" is a high-energy blend of electroclash and French house, characterized by a driving, bombastic beat and system-shaking electronics. A key musical element is the interpolation of the iconic, looping synth riff from Daft Punk's 2005 song "Technologic," which grounds the track in a specific 2000s rave aesthetic while feeling distinctly modern. The production is deliberately frenetic and chaotic, creating a club-ready soundscape. Billie Eilish's verse introduces a subtle shift, with a slightly deeper bassline that has been interpreted as a sonic representation of a pounding heart.

Lyrically, the song employs a direct address and a conversational tone, initiated by Charli's "Hey, Billie, you there?". This creates an immediate sense of intimacy. The song uses a call-and-response structure between Charli's teasing verse and Billie's knowing reply. The lyrics are explicit and playful, utilizing rhetorical questions to challenge the listener ("You wanna guess the colour of my underwear?"). Billie's verse reframes Charli's lyrics by mirroring the structure but changing the perspective from a question to an answer, a technique that strengthens the narrative of their collaboration. The outro breaks the fourth wall, directly speaking to the audience about their own song, a meta-commentary that is characteristic of Charli XCX's self-aware style.

The release of "Guess featuring Billie Eilish" was a significant cultural event in 2024, amplifying the already viral phenomenon of Charli XCX's "Brat Summer." The collaboration between two of pop music's biggest and most influential stars sent the internet into a frenzy, breaking the Spotify record for the biggest remix debut by female artists with over 6.8 million streams in its first weekend. The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Charli's first-ever solo number-one hit in her home country and Billie Eilish's third. It also topped charts in multiple other countries and reached number twelve on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The track and its accompanying music video were widely discussed for their unapologetic queerness and commentary on fame. The video's charitable component, donating 10,000 pairs of underwear to the nonprofit I Support the Girls, also garnered positive attention. The song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The success of "Guess" and the other remixes helped propel the remix album, Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat, to number one on the UK albums chart, solidifying the Brat era as a landmark moment in Charli XCX's career and a defining chapter in 2020s pop culture.

The central symbol of the song is Charli's underwear, which serves as a metaphor for her private life, sexuality, and the aspects of her identity that are subject to public speculation. The act of 'guessing the color' represents the audience's voyeuristic desire to know intimate details about celebrities. The reference to the 'lower back tattoo,' or 'tramp stamp,' is another potent symbol, reclaiming an image often stereotyped to shame women for their sexuality and instead presenting it as a point of confident allure.

Billie Eilish's entrance in the music video, crashing through a wall in a bulldozer, is a powerful visual metaphor. It symbolizes her breaking through the noise and speculation, as well as shattering the fourth wall between the artists and the audience. The mountain of underwear that the two artists climb and play on visually represents the overwhelming, sometimes absurd, nature of the public's obsession with their private lives. However, their joyful interaction with it suggests a sense of control and empowerment, turning what could be an invasive symbol into a playground. The donation of the underwear after the shoot further adds a layer of positive, tangible action to the artistic statement.

The most significant recurring motif is the central challenge: "You wanna guess." This phrase, in its various forms, is the core concept of the song, repeated by Charli as a taunt and then subverted by Billie. It highlights the theme of public speculation versus private knowledge.

The chorus, with its string of verbs "Try it, bite it, lick it, spit it," is a major lyrical hook and a recurring motif of explicit, unapologetic desire. It's repeated by both Charli and Billie, unifying their perspectives in its raw hedonism. Billie's version adds her own flavor with "Kiss it, ride it, can I fit it?", personalizing the motif while maintaining its structure.

The reference to Charli's underwear is the primary recurring image, symbolizing the private self that others are trying to access. Furthermore, the song features direct name-drops, a technique Charli XCX uses frequently in her Brat era. She mentions producer The Dare in her chorus, and Billie famously sings, "Charli likes boys, but she knows I'd hit it," making the inter-artist connection a key part of the song's texture.