Coachella’s newest “Queen B!” is Billie Eilish. On April 16, the 20-year-old Bad Guy singer rocked the Indio, California, event after a surprise appearance by her personal favorite, Justin Bieber, and joked about the festival’s years-long infatuation with Beyonce!
“Thank you, Coachella!” says the narrator. “I’m sorry, but I’m not Beyoncé,” Eilish, 20, joked to the large audience. “I love you, goodnight,” she concluded as her festival-defining act came to a close.
Billie also joked that she “shouldn’t be headlining this s***” and thanked the audience for giving her the chance to perform on the stage that is so well-known.
Billie performed with surprise guests Damon Alborn and Khalid, dressed in ponytails, shorts, her typical low-key oversize blouse, and knee pads. She told the crowd, “This is such a dream come true.”
“I’m going insane.” The Oscar winner also wrote out three “rules” for the evening, including “just having fun, bitch!” as well as not being an “a–hole” and not “judging others,” all of which perfectly match Billie’s tone.
The singer is stepping into some big shoes, and her homage to Beyonce was no accident-Beyonce’s Coachella performances are so legendary that the event was renamed “BeyChella” in April 2018. Beyonce made history by becoming the first black woman to headline the festival at the time.
Beyoncé’s set became the Coachella performance to emulate, as she performed with a now-legendary marching band in one of the event’s most memorable headline acts in recent history.
Beyonce was supposed to perform in 2017, but she had to cancel due to her pregnancy, so her 2018 performance was even more anticipated. Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella performance was so memorable that she made a documentary film on the build-up to it called Homecoming.
As a result, Billie’s remarks about the famed siren make sense. Her individual performance, however, was legendary in and of itself, and she admitted that the experience was unreal for her.
Billie was the festival’s second headliner, coming after Harry Styles’ incredible performance with Shania Twain and before The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia on April 17. She said before singing Feel Good Inc. with Alborn, “This is the craziest s*** I’ve ever experienced.”
“[Damon] impacted my life in many ways, as well as my perception of what music, art, and creation can be.”