Billie Eilish rises to musical supernova with a daring sense of newness, production, and visual intricacy; all around exquisite.
The moment when her face, previously a disguised vision on the screen, transforms into a human being breathing, smiling, and singing in front of you, it clicks. Billie Eilish is a singing athlete who is capable of on-and-off cardio, running from one side of the stage to the other, and belting out even better than her recordings.
Opening her fifth night at London’s O2, the all-around twenty thousand Eilish stans fill the space with pure admiration, dedication, and common understanding to support their one and only. It feels like the fans standing in the pit, crowded as they are, can predict every move of the superstar.
Hiding away in a glaring box-shaped object in the middle of the rectangular stage, Billie Eilish gradually makes an entrance with the sensationally haunting chorus of ‘THE GREATEST.’ Starting with ‘CHIHIRO,’ leaving no time to take her dreamt-of presence in, everyone screams, ‘open up the door, open up the door,’ as she stands on top of the box construction.
Landing on the stage, ‘LUNCH‘ charges her running all over, making sure all parts of the arena can get a good look at her. Wearing bright orange basketball shorts, a black jersey with number 20, and a blue-orange snapback, after ‘NDA’ and ‘Therefore I Am,’ Billie Eilish pauses and makes an effort to take each face, each fan, each broken heart she’s currently piecing back together in, as she greets us for the first time.
For ‘WILDFLOWER,’ a considerably slowed-down moment of the show, Billie Eilish fans prove themselves as they understand the assignment of singing back the famous ad-libs of the second verse. Though the biggest test of all comes as she sits down comfortably in the middle of the stage and asks if we can be silent for just a minute, she promises she will never ask us to be quiet again. Looping her vocals for ‘when the party’s over’ is a truly religious, metamorphic experience.You feel as if you are with her alone, as she plays with vocal harmonies, as if she were composing a visual symphony that will heal souls on a global scale.
The blast from the past ‘bad guy’ reminds everyone of her early commercial days. The song’s bridge is some of the most iconic Billie Eilish lyricism, ‘but maybe it’s ’cause I’m wearing your cologne,’ turning up the heat for everyone avidly watching the red-illuminated podium. Splendidly blended, ‘THE GREATEST’ follows with her back strapped in at the top of the box, as she, what seems casual to the naked eye, performs the most evocative, heartache-eloquent vocals of the evening, with the words ‘I waited and I waited,’ astonishingly lingering in the air, for anyone who needs it.
For the acoustic portion of the concert, Billie Eilish and her two other singers prepare to join her. She begins with ‘Your Power,‘ prefacing, “The US is in such a dark place right now and so many other paces, it’s really weird to be somewhere so beautiful and it’s deceiving to how bad things are all over the world and to how many people are suffering so I just want to take a moment and say I’m sending my love to all those suffering. For all people watching, I want you to know you’re safe here, and I hope you feel free to be yourself”.
Continuing with ‘SKINNY,’ and ‘TV,’ there is an unspoken, hovering feeling of empathy and understanding, listening to Eilish’s soft, yet striking delivery of each word.
Suddenly appearing on the B stage, after Charli XCX’s verse of ‘Guess,’ Eilish springs out delivering her part as seductively as humanely possible. She calls out, “come on London, go crazy with me,” and the O2 turns into a neon green lit rave, where you don’t want to stop jumping and truly let free of anything that’s weighing you down. Staying on the side platform, she truly inhibits people’s dreams with ‘everything I wanted,’ a bittersweet confession of a young star in the making.
Back on the main stage, now sitting at a piano, you have the chance to really stare into her breathtaking blue eyes, as she performs a medley of ‘lovely,’ ‘BLUE,’ and ‘ocean eyes.’ An extended version that was released separately from the original ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’ tracklist is the ‘L’AMOUR DE MA VIE (OVER NOW)’, a four-minute extra-long edit, which shows off Eilish’s range, just in case you forgot what she is capable of.
Creeping into the end of the show, as everything turns pink, Eilish sits down as she rips my heart out with the Barbie soundtrack ‘What Was I Made For,’ as I remember the lyrics offering meaning to the way I felt without knowing it myself. Giving us the final chance to spill our guts out, ‘Happier Than Ever‘ enrages, awakens, and smashes down all the piled-up disappointment over someone, anyone, who is no longer relevant.
‘BIRDS OF A FEATHER’ is the finale, and there is no better song in her repertoire to celebrate Billie Eilish, as the songwriting and performing phenomenon she is, the entertainer of our generation. The O2 witnesses a one-night glimpse of the universal metamorphical effect Billie Eilish has on her fans. Waving and thanking everyone in the crowd, smiling ear to ear with a grateful spark in her eyes, Billie Eilish is a pioneer of unconventional pop music and has had a life-altering impact on our planet and its climate. Billie Eilish rises to musical supernova with a daring sense of newness, production, and visual intricacy; all around exquisite.
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Words: Karolina Kramplova
Photographer: Henry Hwu