Billie Eilish at the Kia Forum

Billie Eilish returned to her hometown of Los Angeles, CA for the first of three final shows of her biggest tour so far supporting her second album Happier Than Ever at the Kia Forum. As Eilish said during the show she had finished the tour already a few months ago but wanted to bring it back home. Eilish embarked on her Where Do We Go? World Tour in March of 2020 only for it to be stopped just three shows in with the Covid-19 Pandemic. Eilish, only 20, continues to break records. At the age of 14 she already had her first single “Ocean Eyes.” Two years later she released her debut EP “Don’t Smile at Me” and by 2019 she had her first album hitting number one in not only the U.S. but 17 other countries. With When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Eilish became the youngest Grammy winner to have won the “big four” Grammy categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist as well as Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical). On top of that her brother/producer, and writing partner Finneas won Producer of the Year (Non Classical). To top that off it was the most streamed album of 2020. Eilish is also the youngest performer to have written and recorded the title song for a James Bond film which was for No Time To Die which received an Academy Award.

Happier Than Ever also made its debut on the Billboard 200 at number and an extra 19 countries. Just like her first album, all the songs were written/produced/recorded by her and Finneas. Happier Than Ever received a total of seven Grammy nominations and Eilish performed the title track at the 64th Grammy Awards and collaborated with Disney+ for a concert film.

Speaking of hometown shows just three years ago, Eilish performed two nights at Shrine Expo Hall and one night at Greek Theater on her When We All Fall Asleep tour as well as both Saturdays of Coachella. Back in April this year Eilish played three shows at the Kia Forum followed by a Saturday headline set at Coachella both weekends. Eilish’s band is just two members, Finneas on keyboards/guitar/bass/percussion and Andrew Marshall on drums.

The stage was one of the biggest ones I’ve seen at the Forum. It’s a regular rectangle shape but with a triangle at the end followed by a cat walk and the back of the stage where Finneas and Marshall had their risers had a middle part that could go up like a ramp and their risers could move up and down. Also there was a B-stage which was actually a cherry picker that brought Eilish up to the seats all the way in the back. It certainly reminded me of Michael Jackson on the Dangerous tour and This Is It. Just a little after 8:30 P.M. Eilish took the stage and for the first part of the show was in red lighting. She constantly interacted with the audience while moving around the massive stage.

Eilish performed a whopping 32 songs starting with “bury a friend” and included the debut performances of “my future”, “xanny,” and towards the end “bitches broken hearts.” Eilish brought Finneas out front for acoustic versions of “i love you,” “Your Power,” and “TV.” On the cherry picker, Eilish performed “OverHeated,” “Bellyache,” “ocean eyes,” and “Bored.” Eilish performed again on the main stage for another 12 songs starting with “Getting Older” and Labrinth came out for “Mount Everest” and “I’ve Never Felt So Alone.” Being the holiday season Eilish added in “Have Yourself A Merry Christmas” just before her two biggest hits “bad guy” and “Happier Than Ever.”