Barcelona(The photograph that illustrates this chronicle is from the Billie Eilish concert in Paris on June 11, and has provided the promoter Live Nation, with the approval of the American artist, who on this tour does not authorize the presence of press photographers or television cameras)
One of the best shows. For the interpretation, for naturalness, for the repertoire, for the staging and communication of Billie Eilish with the public, and that of the public with Billie Eilish. Day of great expectation in the first of the two concerts of the Californian artist at the Palau Sant Jordi, with everything sold for months. While the Sónar festival said goodbye to the Montjuïc Fairground, mounting the enthusiasm was an energy that could almost be played with the fingers. The public received the American artist at 8:13 p.m. with the screaming of thanks dedicated to really relevant stars, and felt it even more intense at 9:48 p.m. The best hour and a half exploited of the year around songs that are crying in the intimacy of the room and the grief and dance in the club and the catharsis.
Eilish was already relevant six years ago, when he was only 17 and was a debutant who filled the Palau Sant Jordi. Then he had established an unwavering generational connection thanks to the album When we all fall asleep, where do we go?and everything he has done later has consolidated his status, always with notable artistic results, such as the magnificent album Hit me hard and soft (2024), one of the best of last year according to the ARA. With only 23 years he has won nine Grammy and two Oscar awards, and the way he is developing the trajectory suggests that he will be a very long journey artist. Despite being connected to the Z Beat, it has few conjunctural mortgages and both in the composition and in the interpretation there is a place that comes from afar, from the great American songbook. Pop with dramatic depth and youth freshness, and without a dance body or choreography, an almost countercultural bet in someone born in the 21st century.
An exemplary scenography
The staging was very worthwhile: the stage in the middle of the track (as in the concerts of Roger Waters), with a box in the center on which Billie Eilish appeared to sing Chihiro (She and all the public), while the musicians were distributed on both sides in two square graves. It was immediately clear that in this case the staging was created with intention and criteria, especially in the light section. And hanging from the ceiling, a cube with four screens that combined images of the concert with graphic resources and then expanded to form two more cubes. Attentive to the public, the Californian walked and ran throughout the perimeter of the stage. It also descended to the areas of the musicians, to imply that it is not alone in this adventure. He even filmed them to show them on the screens.
In the second song, LunchI already had Sant Jordi singing and jumping. Too bad that at the beginning the sound cloudy the voice, which did not arrive sufficiently clear, a problem that was solved soon. Eilish ‘smile was of absolute satisfaction. And security. In a pause, without saying anything, simply smiling, he obtained an impressive ovation. “How are we going?” He asked, and the acoustic guitar opened the ballad Wildflower. An unusual respectful silence in this type of large -format concerts accompanied the vocal sutility of When the party’s overthat the singer began sitting like who tells a story in a field fire, and ended up lying as the one who looks for the reasons in the stars. It is one of the songs in which Eilish takes more juice to the different records of the voice, accompanied by two choristers and the sound of the keyboard. But not the only one. In others it provides a very interesting drama, never overreacted, which modulates dominating the dynamics of the microphone.
He is an extraordinary interpreter in the whisper and the song breathed, but also when the melodrama becomes inflamed, as in The Greatestwho sang perched on the box, turned into a swing that went up and down. Just after he made the two choristers leave the pit to sing together Your powerEilish also with the acoustic guitar “tries not to abuse your power,” says the first verse. Skinnyone of the most exciting ballads of the last album.
Again with the musicians in the pit, he made Oxytocinof obsessive rhythms, with the battery punishing hype and box, and a more nocturnal energy, which continued with the version of Guess by Charli XCX, who performed from a small stage located at one end of the track. It was the moment of disco, which also soaked a Everything and Wanted during which Eilish filmed while walking between the public towards the main stage. The degree of satisfaction that was breathed in Sant Jordi was hardly comparable to nothing. Another proof: the screaming that preceded THE AMOUR OF MA OLDcapital octopus that souls soul flavor. It is not easy to find a pop idol as consistent as Billie Eilish.
In this final part, in which he said a few words to regret the violence that is lived these days in Los Angeles and other places in the world, songs that define the height and uniqueness of the Californian sounded. For example, the exciting What was and made for?which leads to crescendo without stridency and projecting voice and breath with a very special technique. EITHER Happier than Everchanted from head to toe and sustained in the specific chords of the acoustic guitar until the voice explodes and with it a resounding bass. And finally, Birds of A Featheratmospheric pop more than perfect. Everything sings with a prodigious naturalness, without dramatic overacts. only. “I love you very much!” He had exclaimed anything. This year there will be no better concert than Billie Eilish in the Palau Sant Jordi, and it is very possible that many people remember him as the concert of his life.
