I remember standing for hours in the crowd under the hot sun. It was the beginning of June, which finally started feeling like summer for Vancouver.  Everyone in the crowd is here for the same reason, to see one of the biggest artists in the world. As the sun started to set, everyone knew it was almost time. Finally, we see her walk on stage. She stopped in the middle and stood there like the whole audience was not even there. Everyone went crazy, chanting her name. When she started to jump, we all started to jump like she was controlling us. Billie Eilish had taken over the stage. She owned the stage.

 

Billie Eilish is undeniably one of the most popular pop/ alternative artists at the moment. Songs like ‘bad guy’ and ‘all the good girls go to hell’ from her debut studio album, ‘When we all fall asleep, where do we go?’ helped define her career and growth over the past year. It led her to multiple award nominations and wins including Album of the Year at the Grammys and being the youngest artist to perform a James Bond theme song. 

 

Billie Eilish’s ‘When We All Fall Asleep’ World Tour had a stop in Vancouver on June 1, 2019 at the PNE Amphitheatre. It was the third stop on that leg of the tour and was definitely a memorable show for all the concert goers that attended including myself. Billie’s older brother, Finneas opened the show for her with a soft mellow performance. A perfect way to kick off the show. After his performance, fans were pumped and ready for Billie to hit the stage.

Finally, after hours of waiting, the stage lights fade in, and Billie’s eerie intro appears on screen. A clip of a cartoon facing similarities to Billie endures a series of  nightmares leaving fans with goosebumps. Then finally, Billie walks on stage looking at the crowd of screaming fans in front of her. She starts to jump as the tune of her top hit, ‘bad guy’ starts to play. The crowd jumps along with her screaming the words of the song making it hard to hear Billie’s voice. She danced and jumped around the stage making the crowd go crazy.

The setlist of the show included the majority of songs from her new album and a few from her EP. Highlights from the show include when the whole crowd crouched down before exploding with jumps for ‘COPYCAT’ or her mesmerizing performance of ‘when the party’s over’ around the end of the show. In my opinion, her best performance of the night was ‘i love you’ where she and her brother sat on a bed that lifted on top of the stage and sang together. It wasn’t just the performance that blew me away, it was the energy of the audience singing along with her and shining their phone lights in the air. Billie ended the show with ‘bury a friend’, the third single from her album. It was a great way to end the night. 

 

Billie Eilish’s concert remains to be one of my favourites to this day because of her stage presence and memorable atmosphere. She made the show fun and enjoyable by interacting with the fans throughout the night. It still amazes me how much she’s achieved in such a short amount of time. She was 17 during this show, the same age of a majority of the fans there including myself. She will definitely continue being one of the biggest artists in the world.