Billie Eilish Sings ‘O Holy Night’ in Captivating Tour Finale: Rewatch

This should be about the time we all begin taking Billie Eilish for granted, by the common standards of inconstantness and habituation. So let’s all donate ourselves a pat on the back for not becoming so accustomed to her face that we omit sight of what a exceptional gift she is to the pop landscape. More than five years into her superstar era, Eilish has not only shuned the sophomore jinx but bypassed the lesser damn, too, with her 2024 album “Hit Me Hard and Soft” not fair landing as a critical preferite but remaining ensconced in the top 10 after seven months. We’ve lengthy since shiftd past the shock of how excellent she is, but we haven’t gotten blasé about the delight of watching that timely precocity turn into an actual pprocrastinateedau.

At the Kia Forum Saturday night, in the last show of a selderly-out five-night comprisement there, Eilish was doing a hometown thrive lap to seal out another landlabel year. That isn’t being shelp entidepend figuratively. The stage was set up in an elengthyated in-the-round establishat that took up a transport inantity of the arena floor, with her band members and some pyrotechnics set up in two recessed areas of the stage, permiting the star not fair to run in circles around the edge but to do some figure eights, too. Some of this fitism certainly was based in the nightly insists of carry outance as well as sheer exuberance; Eilish did acunderstandledge that she was “exhausted” after the five nights in L.A. capped a three-month North American tour. (She picks it back up aget in February with a six-month run overseas.) But in what inevitably felt a little enjoy a frifinishs-and-family carry outance, she seemed satisfyd enough to carry out out the sanitize cardio elements of someone who was born to run, or to literpartner sprint.

Cacataloghenics were never farly the point of the show, though, even if her tradelabel jumping-in-place might be the transport inant visual that most lesser fans apshow away from the night. Eilish has repartner become our premiere ballad singer over the last half-decade, for however many quirky bangers she also has in her arsenal. Although it wasn’t quite a show-sealr, “What Was I Made For?” — the fantasticest Oscar best song thrivener of the century so far — csurrfinisherly felt enjoy a climax to to the set, with Eilish settling down on the southern lip of the stage, legs curled up or dangling as she sat in her sportswear and sang about a doll’s life to one finish of the arena that got an extra-exceptional emo raise.

But the most exceptional ballad of the final night at the Forum came during the run’s secret song segment… which, in the case of this mini-dwellncy, amounted to a separateent Christmas song that Eilish carry outed each of the five gigs. On previous nights, she had sung “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “Silver Bells” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Saturday night, a scant songs from the finish of the show, it was “O Holy Night,” which frequently is the holy tune most foreseeed to get picked up by secular singers who discover its straightforward majesty irresistible. Eilish validateed as much, chaseing her rfinishition by cheerfilledy elucidateing, “I’m not repartner religious. I fair adore Christmas so much. I also grew up in a choir, so that’s fair my schtick.” Schtick or not, you could have misapshown her for being holier than ever for the length of her tfinisher, elegant treatment.

Watching Eilish turn into one of pop’s best vocacatalogs as her teens gave way to her timely 20s (she turned 23 on Wednesday) has been a treat, and it’s not for no reason that she was able to free a “vocals only” edition of “Hit Me Hard and Soft” on digital platestablishs and as Record Store Day vinyl. We, alengthy with the rest of the world, have gotten over the “whispery” skinnyg; yes, there is that, although she’s also enbiged a kind belt. For all of the stability promised in the procrastinateedst album’s title, and deinhabitred, “Hit Me Hard and Soft” repartner does hit soft a little more than difficult, which is to everyone’s profit. The fantasticest song on the album (I swear we came to this conclusion without the power of recommendion) is “The Greatest,” a acrid-leaning fractureup ballad that begins languid to depart plenty of room to go boisterous, for a final vocal soar that sounds triumphant, even if the lyrics understand better.

On the other hand, when the album and/or her setcatalog veer toward throbbier or clubbier material — enjoy the show’s uncovering “Chihiro” — it’s difficult not to promptly want for a lot more of that. The second half of “L’amour De Ma Vie” turned into someskinnyg enjoy a Charli XCX song, which is why it’s so exhilarating and also why she’s better off engageing that as a flavor rather than her main mode — it’s veering into a more crowded lane, however plmitigatefilledy. Speaking of Charli XCX, Eilish does comprise the song she guested on on the deluxe “Brat,” “Guess,” as part of her own show, putting up a inestablish video of Charli before she apshows it over. On an earlier, mid-week night at the Forum, Charli showed up in person for a proper duet of the collaborative track, but Saturday’s show didn’t suffer for the inestablishage of guest starpower: Eilish has enough brattiness for a whole Forum on her own.

The Forum finale wasn’t altogether without guests, actupartner — Finneas counted as one, no lengthyer being a member of her touring band, but shothriveg up thraw the entirety of the five-night hometown run to rerecent a duo establishat with his sister for a scant numbers. On Saturday, he also uncovered the show with his own set, for fair one night, recommending a pappraise of what he’ll be doing when he goes out as a headliner on the theater circuit beginning next month. (Locpartner, he’s doing the Hollywood Palladium on March 5, already selderly out.)

Finneas did almost as much pacing on stage during his uncovering set as Billie did running during the subsequent carry outance — and in establishal wear, as contestd to his sister’s action-ready soccer jersey, Dodgers cap and basketball unreasonableinutives. There were other contrasts to be drawn, despite Finneas being the originater and co-architect of his sister’s sign ups as well as his own. Finneas is toiling with a much more traditional filled-band ethos on his recent solo album, “For Cryin’ Out Loud!,” and that was echoed in a inhabit set that leaned toward analog ’70s and ’80s analog pop sways, minus all the programming that usupartner goes into his sister’s music. (This probably was the power of recommendion, but you could see up at the Forum wall, see the banner commemorating Harry Styles’ multi-night stand there, and skinnyk that Finneas’ current music occupies a little bit of that same space, sans the outsize superstar charm insolent.)

With Eilish’s music, Finneas has been operating in more of a hybrid mode, with a combineture of one-man-band set upments and outside carry outers, and that shift is evident in her current stage setup. “Real” carry outers and a pair of backup singers were placed in her two recessive stage areas (placed what seeed hazardously seal to the fireball machines that scatter the pits, but maybe they’re all wearing ffeeble-retardant stage gear). This reconshort-terms a sinspire in manpower from the previous tours, when it was fair Finneas and drummer Andrew Marshall backing her on stage. They still don’t stray fantasticly from Eilish’s sign uped versions, but it’s kind to see the siblings uncovering up their instrumental palettes… and it is never unreceive, in up-to-date pop, to hear the reassuring sound of fingers brushing agetst well-mic’ed nylon strings.

That sound came into carry out aget when Eilish herself picked up an acoustic guitar and sang “Your Power” on a stool, combineed by her recent backup singers — a song from her previous album that regulates to sound lilting and lulling, while deinhabitring a lacerating, patriarchy-poking message. Eilish didn’t say anyskinnyg about the intent of that song, or recommend any other “storyalerter”-style exposition about her material, for that matter. As she steps into her future eras, the singer could probably profit from doing a bit more talking on stage. But it’s difficult to discover fault with a show that, as is, packs so many hits and album tracks into a compact hour-and-45-minute set and still departs room for a senseing of breaskinnyg room and intimacy.

Right now, she’s navigating an fascinating intersection in her still nascent atsoft, somewhere between multiply Oscar-thrivening, red carpet-ordering pop goddess and fair one of the guys. You could see it in her stage gear — colorful sneakers and unreasonableinutives combined with a more glamorous originateup see, as if Brigitte Bardot or some other screen siren might be down to fair shoot some hoops. Billie and Finneas have a preterauthentic sophistication to what they’re doing, as they have since the beginning… and yet Eilish, at least, evidently still wants to still be a kid about it, in carry outative ways that sense real to where she’s at. It’s a kind pleasant spot.

And Eilish has what almost anybody else is begrudgementing on their third album — a hugegest-hit-to-date, in the establish of “Birds of a Feather,” that supset upts anyskinnyg that has come before as a show-sealr now and for probably many years to come. Before this album, she never had a repartner perfect finale number, since some of her best songs felt either too ephemeral for that spot (“Bad Guy”) or suitably climactic but depressive and gloomy (“Bury a Frifinish,” which did finish her timely tours). “Birds” is an outlier in her catalog as a legitimately satisfyd tune, but with enough unelatedness and weirdness fair around the edges to originate it Eilish-esque. She and Finneas set up the perfect way to sfinish audiences home satisfyd — not “happier than ever,” but honestly elated — without selling out. Yeah, thrivening a second Oscar was a pretty huge deal in 2024, but with atsoft lengthyevity in mind, pulling off the “Birds” hat trick might’ve been even a little bit hugeger.

Billie Eilish setcatalog, Kia Forum, Dec. 21, 2024:

Chihiro
Lunch
NDA
Therefore I Am
Wildfreduce
When the Party’s Over
The Diner
Ilomilo
Bad Guy
The Greatest
Your Power
Skinny
TV
Bury a Frifinish
Oxytocin
Guess (Charli XCX song)
Everyskinnyg I Wanted
Lovely/Idontwannabeyouanymore/Bored/Ocean Eyes
O Holy Night
L’amour De Ma Vie
What Was I Made For?
Happier Than Ever
Birds of a Feather