Billie Eilish at 3Arena, Dublin on Saturday 26th of July, 2025.
The Luas to The Point was hopping in anticipation at 7pm on Saturday evening. Jorts, bandanas and caps adorned the recognisable Billie Eilish fans on their way to see their idol. Upon arriving at the 3Arena, the stage formed a massive B in the centre of the arena. A cage sat in the middle, and the standing crowd circled its outskirts. My Bloody Valentine’s ‘When You Sleep’ soundtracked the pre-gig wait – a nod from Billie to the Irish shoegazers.
The 23-year-old California native has seen many eras – from green rooted hair to her bleach blonde Barbie soundtracking days, Billie has matured in her latest album ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’. It shows her at her most vulnerable, and yet she seems to be fully her true self.
The lights darken, the box glows a bright, white light and the gig is on. Opening her set with the massive sound of ‘CHICHIRO’, bisexual anthem ‘LUNCH’ follows suit. Billie runs around the stage, giving face time to every corner of the crowd.
‘NDA’ closes the new album trio and leads straight into ‘Therefore I Am’. “I’m not your friend, or anything damn, you think that you’re the man, I think therefore I am” the chorus rings, the crowd in unison while Billie skirts around flames erupting from the centre of the stage.
Her early work holds darker tones, but Billie is filled with light. A few songs in she pauses, walks around the stage and a chant of “Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé” (usually reserved for a pre-encore incantation) starts.
“How you doing? You wanna have some fun?” She says before starting into the dulcet tones of ‘WILDFLOWER’, lit by thirteen thousand sparkling phone lights. Health and safety might not agree, but bring back the day of swaying with lighters!
Billie at this point sits cross legged on the floor, beaming, and asks the crowd for silence. The show is a mix of crazy high energy – flame canons, running and jumping around the stage – and quieter moments like this one.
She loops her voice, harmonising with herself for the introduction to ‘When the Party’s Over’. Lying on her back, the stage lights up white and she looks angelic on the screens above her. The quiet soon dissolves and the heavy bass of ‘THE DINER’ takes over, and then Billie takes a seat and gives her all to this first album gem, ‘ilomilo’.
The set is filled with a mix of her three LP’s. Album one’s ‘bad guy’ runs into album three’s ‘THE GREATEST’ which stands out as a highlight of the show, as she sings it on a raised platform, hovering above the stage.
She shouts out her “thousand relatives in the crowd right now”, acknowledging that though she didn’t grow up here, she has the pasty white skin of an Irish woman. A heartfelt acknowledgement of the suffering happening in the world follows, though there are no Palestinian flags or chants of ‘Free Free Palestine’ at a Billie Eilish show, which seems to be par for the course at an Irish gig these days.
“People say I look happy, just because I look skinny”, she sings to a room again filled with tiny sparking dots of light. She leads ‘TV’ into ’bury a friend’, ‘Oxytocin’ and an electrifying version of Charli XCX’s ‘Guess’. The room calms down from the high Charli XCX energy, when Billie takes to the piano for a medley of ‘lovely’, ‘BLUE’, and ‘Ocean Eyes’ – the song that started it all for her.
“I wish you the best, for the rest of your life” opens L’AMOUR DE MA VIE. “You were the love of my life,” she continued, before taking a break to nod to the Eilish she was named after, who was in the crowd along with her parents.
Barbie pink lights up the stage for her Grammy winning ‘What Was I Made For’, followed by second album standout track ‘Happier Than Ever’. Billie couldn’t leave her show without playing her biggest hit of the year. To close the show, she sings ‘BIRDS OF A FEATHER’, an ode to her brother, to her adoring crowd. There’s no mistaking it, this woman is a star.
Photos courtesy of Henry Hwu