Billie Eilish knows how to orchestrate an audience.
Her energetic synth-pop hits had the audience collectively jumping as if they were in a dance club. Minutes later, her intimate ballads drew them in close, mesmerized by her airy vocals filling the sold-out State Farm Arena Saturday night.
“How’s it going, Atlanta?” Eilish asked the crowd. “You know you’ve always been one of my favorites.”
The Grammy- and Oscar-winning artist is touring her third studio album “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” released earlier this year. Through pop hits like “Birds of a Feather” and “Lunch,” the album explores love and relationships, including her attraction to women. Although she has not publicly labeled her sexuality, Eilish has become something of an LGBTQ+ icon after publicly embracing her queer identity, which she first confirmed last year in Variety.
The 22-year-old singer also brought out several songs from her previous albums, including hits “bad guy” and “Happier than ever,” and her single, “What Was I Made For?” from the “Barbie” soundtrack.
Eilish sported the oversized, streetwear look she has popularized, bucking traditional feminine norms for pop singers, to which fans paid homage by wearing large sports jerseys and bandanas in their hair.
Their dark sequins, black lace, plaid flannel shirts, sports caps and snapback hats mirrored the singer’s outfit: A large t-shirt under a plaid button-down shirt, atop red baggy shorts and topped off with a Los Angeles Dodger’s baseball cap and several layered necklaces.
Eilish has a way of making every person in the crowd feel like her friend and therefore eager to reciprocate the energy she exudes on stage. When she opened her set with “Chihiro” with a techno sound paired with strobe lights, the audience was up on their feet and screaming with excitement.
Then, when she asked the audience to be quiet and listen as she looped her harmonies live in “when the party’s over,” everyone tuned in with bated breath, silent.
It’s this connection with her audience — her uncanny ability to carry them up to new heights of energy and back down to quiet, intimate connection — that makes her performance stand out.
The high contrast kept the crowd engaged the entire show. During upbeat songs like “Lunch,” “bad guy,” and “Bittersuite,” she darted across the entire stage, dancing with the bass beat and urging the crowd to do the same.
Her vocals peaked during her ballad, “The Greatest,” which she sang atop a suspended platform. She began seated, singing softly. As the song built up, the platform began to rise until she belted during the song’s peak, showcasing the power behind her voice that she more often keeps tucked away behind her signature airy vocals.
Credit: Henry Hwu
Credit: Henry Hwu
When she slowed down to sing the softer, more intimate songs “male fantasy,” “Skinny” and “TV” with her backup vocalists and childhood friends Ava and Jane Horner, she played acoustic guitar and had the audience sit down. Fans shone their phone flashlights in the air, creating the appearance of a starry sky across the arena.
Eilish was back on her feet in a flash, and the crowd followed fans went into a screaming frenzy with synth-pop hits “bury a friend” and “Oxytocin.” The more Eilish danced, the looser her pigtail braids became, with wisps of hair loose around her face. By the end of the show, she had taken the braids out altogether.
She also connected with the audience in ways beyond music. She stepped down to the floor level and high-fived fans, and even leaned across the barrier to give a few hugs. At some points, Eilish held up a camera to her face, mimicking a webcam, and projected herself and her band onto the screens for the crowd to see.
Credit: Henry Hwu
Credit: Henry Hwu
Eilish took several opportunities to reach her audience on social issues, highlighting her efforts to combat climate change and urging everyone to vote in the 2024 presidential election.
“Please, for the love of god, vote if you’re old enough,” she said. “Times are really scary, and a lot is at stake, and I know that if you’re in this room and you support me, you support women.”
Eilish’s Sunday performance comes after her climate and sustainability conference, hosted with Support + Feed, a food justice organization founded by Eilish’s mother, Maggie Baird. She launched the group in 2020 to work toward “an equitable, plant-based food system.” It will be livestreamed on Eilish’s YouTube channel.
Eilish closed out the show with her latest big hit “Birds of a Feather,” during which blue confetti blasted out across the stadium and onto fans.
“Thank you so much, Atlanta. I love you!” Eilish said.
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