There was a torrential downpour outside the New Orleans Smoothie King Center on Feb. 3. Nevertheless, dedicated Billie Eilish fans packed together with raincoats and umbrellas in hand, ready to see the beloved singer perform at the opening concert of the “Happier Than Ever” world tour.
To add to the list of setbacks, opener Willow had withdrawn from the first four dates of the tour. Dora Jar was asked to open in her place—until she came down with COVID-19 on the same day as the NOLA date, leaving only Eilish to perform 30 minutes ahead of schedule for the sold-out crowd.
Eilish was three concerts into her “Where Do We Go” world tour in the spring of 2020 before the pandemic ultimately made her cancel the rest of it. Because of her unexpected free time, she finished her sophomore album, which is the main focus of the present tour. Eilish emerged from the pandemic better than ever (and, of course, happier than ever) and showed no signs of slowing down. After scattered performances in late 2020 and 2021, she performs this album practically in its entirety for this tour.
Fans erupted in screams as white strobe lights flashed, and the words from her hit song “Happier than Ever,” “You made me hate this city,” echoed around the arena. You could feel the eager anticipation building with every passing second until Eilish finally jumped onto the stage from below the platform. Her 90-minute show began with a performance of “Bury a Friend,” which was illuminated in red lights. The transitions from each single were smooth as each song beautifully flowed into the other.
The visuals were detail-oriented and crafted to match the theme of each song. During “NDA,” the stage was transformed into a dark road crossing as cars rushed by on the screen behind her. The stage and audience were flooded in song-matching colors like blue for “I Don’t Wanna Be You Anymore” and gold for “Goldwing.” During “You Should See Me in a Crown,” a giant spider crawled across the screen in reference to the music video, while ballroom dancers’ legs moved in sync to “Billie Bossa Nova.”
“She played a really versatile set and had such a powerful stage presence,” senior Mandy Martin said. “She sang some emotional things that were captivating, but she was also relatable and funny.”
Tonight was a special night for Eilish, as her energy was unlike any of her previous shows. She could be seen running, spinning and bouncing across the stage at some moments. Eilish enjoyed interacting with the audience and instructed them throughout the show to keep them on their feet. During “You Should See Me in a Crown,” she urged everyone to stand still, “like Squid Games,” until she directed them to jump around. For the slithering single “Oxytocin,” (which included a portion of “Copycat”) she got the audience to get as low as they could before springing up from the ground.
The show’s more heartfelt moments included a stripped-down performance of “Your Power,” with Eilish and her brother Finneas strumming guitars and singing the emotional song. Finneas then walked away, leaving Eilish to sing “Male Fantasy” alone with her guitar. A montage of our planet being ruined by pollution, oil spills, waste and global warming made for the show’s most somber moment during “All the Good Girls Go to Hell.” She admitted that she’d cried multiple times while looking at the heartbreaking video during rehearsals but knew these were important issues that needed to be addressed.
During the middle of the set, “Not My Responsibility” and its corresponding short film played as Eilish ran to the opposite end of the arena and rode on a massive crane. There, she sang “Overheated” and took a few moments to admire her delighted supporters as the crane circled slowly. She then delivered a performance of her earlier musical masterworks, including “Bellyache,” “Ocean Eyes” and “Bored” before getting off.
Instead of an encore, Eilish announced that the show would conclude after two final songs. With that, she took out her pigtails and danced wildly on the runway to “Bad Guy,” with confetti cannons exploding from the rafters. The title track “Happier Than Ever” began quietly but quickly turned into a rager, with fans screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs.
There’s no better way to experience New Orleans for the first time than to do so at the start of a world tour, and Eilish did just that.
“It was absolutely incredible,” said freshman Trissidy Semien. “I’ve wanted to see Billie Eilish on tour for years now, and it feels like a dream that I finally got to see her. It was so much fun. I’m happy we could all gather safely and have a great time.”
