Billie Eilish, chronicle of her concert in Barcelona (2025)

“I hadn’t been here for a long time”says Billie Eilish Before the more than 17,000 people gathered for the second consecutive night at the Palau Sant Jordi. Perhaps some were also on their first visit, just a few meters away, in the most modest Sant Jordi Club, where six years ago he opened the doors of that interior universe of gothic inspiration and broken melodies. There were still two weeks for your first album “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?“It came to light, but then radiated the aura of those who are destined to become the voice of a generation: a generation that seeks to speak without filters about their fears, anguish, and that feeling of not belonging. A generation that, like all its predecessors, needed a teenage idol.

But Billie Eilish It is no longer (alone) that eternal tortured teenager who moves in shadows. Tonight it displays all its facets: the most pop, the darkest, most explosive and also the most festive. All live on a stage designed to multiply it. In the center of Sant Jordi a large cube rises, like a futuristic altar, from which Billie emerges while “Chihiro” sounds. Around it, two square pits house musicians – guards of this sound temple – and, from above, imposing screens generate a film atmosphere that surrounds us all night. The long “Hit me hard and soft” It could not be less. Correre, Salta, travels every corner of the stage and goes down with the musicians, camera in hand, recording them in selfie mode, giving them the prominence they deserve and inviting us to enter their particular universe. Sometimes it appears suspended from the ceiling; others, lying on the ground, Loopeandor “When The Party’s Over” until completely silenced the Palau. That constant contrast – the hard and soft that gives title to the album – embodies it with total naturalness.

He gives us intimate moments, such as a piano medley (“Lovely”, “Blue” and “Ocean Eyes”), which links past and present to remind us that this sensitivity remains intact, although the aforements have multiplied. Also in “Your Power”, with Billie to the acoustic guitar, reflecting on the strange times that we live and mentioning his family, especially his father, in a wink to the Father’s Day in the US. Uu. Because getting a whole enclosure contains the breath is as powerful as making it dance. And Billie knows perfectly when he plays one thing and when the other.

Because delicacy is not at odds with being a pop hits machine. “Bad Guy” continues to be as fresh as the first day and in the same way is able to take us to an impromptu rave, bathed in Brat green lasers, before launching with “Guess”, his collaboration with Charli XCX, from the small stage to the bottom of the room.

It is not of long speeches. Rather contained than expansive – perhaps by the rhythm of one of his most intense tours, or simply because he is an artist who does not need ornaments – Billie keeps the audience attentive to each gesture: a half smile? It yells. Can you unscrew a bottle of water? It is shouted again. An adoration that becomes clamor: “And queen! And queen! Beautiful, beautiful, pretty and beautiful!” Pure pop home iconography to which Billie (explode to a girl from Los Angeles who is the Virgen de los Dolores del Cerro) responds with a “I don’t know what you say, but I love you a lot.” Unexpected compliments are universal language, and Billie Eilishas a good star, knows how to handle collective euphoria with the fair mixture of naturalness and affection. The public, of course, melts.

The climax arrives with the most opposite -and complementary versions – of its identity: the ethereal muse in “What was i made for?”, The rockstar in “Happier than Ever” capable of burning the Palau Sant Jordi with a canon, electric guitar in hand and visual storms. As a brooch, “Birds of A Feather”, one of its most luminous hymns, breaks with the idea that sensitivity is born only from anguish: it is a caramel against it, a song to the connection and understanding in the view of the other. The light – literal and figurative – floods the Palau while the white confetti falls as a perfect postcard.

There are many Billies and they all got on the stage last night. It has long ceased to be a young promise that moved in shadows, but continues to find beauty and truth inside them. And that, in these times, is not little.