"All Eyes on Me" is a song by Americanmusical comedianBo Burnham, appearing as the eighteenth song in his 2021 specialBo Burnham: Inside and itssoundtrack of the same name. The song discusses Burnham's problems withperforming live, in particular performance anxiety, including a spoken interlude where he talks with an imaginary audience. Ashortened edit was released as a single on July 2 titledAll Eyes on Me (Song Only).
The song begins with the sound of an disembodiedapplause (not present in the single version) as Burnham begins the chorus, with adigitally lowered voice, which consists of Burnham telling his "audience" to put their hands up and get out of their seats, displaying his desperation for attention which he hasn't gotten thanks to the pandemic. While also asking them to "pray for me", which according to research scholar Quentin Stuckey,[1] could represent a splitting in Bo's character between the need for attention and the desperation for help or divine intervention as a result of performing alone for so long. This contrasts with "Can't Handle This" from his previous specialMake Happy, in which he displays dissatisfaction that he needs to perform. The song contains a one minute, twenty second spoken interlude, which is cut in the single version. In it, Burnham talks about his decision to stop doing live shows after suffering frompanic attacks while touring forwhat. andMake Happy. He eventually reveals that he intended to begin performing live again, but that it had to be put on hold due to the start of theCOVID-19 pandemic.
An alternative version of the song was published alongsideThe Inside Outtakes a year later. It does not contain the spoken interlude from the original, and instead overlays multiple lines from the original as well as lines cut from the original.
