Billie Eilish debuts in Brazil with ‘Happier than ever’ tour, which confirmed her as the voice of new pop

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Singer had a show in Brazil canceled in 2020, when she was a revelation, and arrives 3 years later, more serious and experienced. She comes to Lollapalooza on tour for her 2nd album, which even has bossa nova. Billie Eilish launches ‘NDA’ and signs the video for the single that integrates the new album Playback/Instagram Billie Eilish’s debut in Brazil was scheduled for May 2020, but it arrives almost three years later. The delay was due to the pandemic, of course. But there’s an upside: The break has taken her from breakout status to new pop music’s big voice. She is the main attraction of the first day of Lollapalooza 2023 in São Paulo, this Friday (24). See the full schedule. If the show was in 2020, Brazilian fans would not hear the songs from “Happier than ever” (2021), her second album. And you wouldn’t see an even more confident Billie Eilish onstage. In 2022, she headlined the two main festivals in the world: Coachella, in the USA, and Glastonbury, in England. How is the current tour? On this tour, she usually plays “Happier than ever” almost all of it. The album fulfilled the challenge placed on Billie Eilish’s back to be the most thought-provoking voice of this generation. Not without drama: the ex-“ordinary girl” returned less mocking and more adult, but still scathing, moved by the force of hatred. The record is more serious than the bombastic debut “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (2019). If before she rolled her eyes at teenage life and made up horror stories, now she dissects the dramas of abusive relationships at work and in love. The duo with brother Finneas, who injected creativity and freshness into pop with electronic music produced in the bedroom, remains sharp. They keep expanding their horizons, more confident, and go from techno (“Oxytocin”) to bossa nova (self-explanatory title “Billie bossa nova”). Remember the track by track: “Getting Older” Little piano and soft melody deceive only those who don’t know it. It’s a sour-sweet song. Billie speaks of her fame for her cruel little ways: “Strangers used to want me more than anyone ever did / Too bad they’re all crazy.” And it gets heavier: “It wasn’t my decision to be abused.” “I didn’t change my number” The album is a big bite and blow. If the beginning was the blowing, this one starts with noises of dogs or another animal coming out of the cage. Finneas shines in electronic collages. To balance the previous self-irony, here she bites and is direct: “You should leave before I get too mean.” “Billie bossa nova” Yes, it’s a bossa nova – streamlined and slightly electronic. The style becomes a path for Billie to mock the false glamor of life on tour and the mystery of her love life. It’s the kind of song that feels like a joke that she and Finneas took too far. But the result is the weakest on the record (sorry, Brazil). Billie Eilish Publicity “My future” Holds a climate close to bossa, now with piano and jazz-like melody. Beautiful song, one of those that reveal a Billie with a freer voice than on the first album. It begins with reflective melancholy and ends with youthful optimism: “I’m in love with my future.” “Oxytocin” Pulsating electronics like “Bad Guy”. But it goes further in techno. Oxytocin is a female hormone associated with sexual pleasure. Billie is no longer an adult alone in grief, and on this song she is sensual in a way you wouldn’t expect from her first album. “GOLDWING” The most headstrong song on the album begins with a religious hymn inspired by a Hindu poem and set to music by English composer Gustav Holst. Then it becomes weird EDM. Billie says “it’s about wanting to protect someone in a depressed state”. “Lost cause” classy R&B from the vintage of songs created on the strength of ex trauma. It has destructive verses, the kind that show that it’s not a good thing to break Billie Eilish’s heart: “You think you’re such an outlaw / But you got no job”. There. “Halley’s Comet” Just to contradict, this is a really cute ballad. Production and lyrics evoke passionate nights and dreams. “I’m sitting in my brother’s room / I haven’t slept in a week or two / I think I might have fallen in love / What am I going to do?” It might be cheesy, but it has a touching intimacy. Billie Eilish Publicity “Not my responsibility” Declaimed text that was used in concerts in 2020. Billie talks about her reclusive life and being always the target of judgments: “If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman / if I reduce the layers , I’m a piranha”. Sums up the dumbest reviews about her on the first/second disc. “Overheated” Made with a beat taken from the previous track, according to Billie. The lyrics are crazier, without an obvious theme, and have snippets between rap and a broken electronic base reminiscent of Radiohead – the base could be something from the album “Kid A”, released in 2000, a year before her birth. “Everybody dies” “Everybody dies, surprise, surprise”. The fear of death and abandonment treated in this ironic way is very Billie Eilish. Another song in which she lets her voice out a lot and doesn’t let us hear who complains that Billie only knows how to whisper. “Your power” Record executives must have had orgasms listening to this guitar, the most radiophonic (or “streamophonic”) thing she’s ever done. But it’s not silly pop – on the contrary. It’s the lyrics in which she speaks most directly about her abusive relationship with rapper Brandon Adams, when he was 22 and she was 16. “NDA” Another about the hardships of celebrity life. “NDA” is the famous non-disclosure agreement that celebrities make people sign. It starts off rapping with the face of the ex-teen Tyler the Creator fan and then takes a crazy turn into slurred electronics. “Therefore I am” The title quotes that phrase by René Descartes: “I think, therefore I am”. The lyrics are loaded with the disgust that Billie exudes on the record, with a robotic vocal: “I don’t want the press to put my name next to yours”. To offset the philosophical quote, the clip has Billie fooling around at the mall. “Happier Than Ever” The title track is the climax. And it’s too good. It starts out lukewarm as a ukulele-driven lo-fi folk that sums up the album’s story of freedom from abuse and the pursuit of happiness (“When I’m away from you / I’m happier than ever”). Then it explodes with saturated guitars – which, by the way, are also reminiscent of Radiohead – and rancor (“You’ve ruined everything that’s good”). One of the top two rock moments of 2021 for women to cheer and men to embarrass themselves, alongside Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U.” “Male fantasy” ends as it begins: a sour-sweet ballad. The lines deserve a bigger quote because they’re so good: “At home alone, trying not to eat, distracting myself with pornography / I hate the way she looks at me / I can’t stand the dialogue / She would never be so satisfied, that’s a male fantasy / I’m going back to therapy”. Only, after so much rancor, Billie ends melancholy: “I can’t get over you / No matter what I do / I know I should, but I could never hate you”. What do you mean, Billie? You can’t quite understand the ending, just knowing that nothing is obvious in the case of Billie Eilish – thank goodness. Finneas and Billie Eilish at the 2021 Grammys Kevin Mazur / The Recording Academy / AFP

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