Apple Music continues to celebrate Billie Eilish’s incredible year following her recognition as the 2024 Artist of the Year—the first artist to ever win the honor twice. Fans can now experience an exclusive, celebratory acoustic performance from Billie and FINNEAS at apple.co/aoty2024
The intimate Artist of the Year set was filmed in Billie’s hometown of Los Angeles, alongside her longtime collaborator, producer and brother, FINNEAS. The performance highlights tracks from her groundbreaking third album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, including fan favorites like “THE GREATEST,” “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” and “BIRDS OF A FEATHER.”
The unforgettable performance is now available on demand to Apple Music subscribers around the world. Following the performance, Billie and FINNEAS sat down with Apple Music’s Nadeska Alexis. Full quotes from the interview and photos from the performance below.
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Billie tells Apple Music why singing in small, acoustic settings will always be her favorite place to perform…
“It’s a completely different thing, and it’s also so lovely for me because this is really what I like the most in terms of just singing. You know, I love performing more than anything, but singing is really where it all, like in this kind of intimate setting, is really where it all started. And Finneas and I spent a year when I was 14 and he was 18, you know, going to different labels and different companies and playing acoustically for them. And I honestly loved it. And I just, I loved being with my brother and singing together. And so that’s really where we come from. And so it’s nice to always come back to that.”
Billie tells Apple Music how she stays grounded after years of feeling lonely and isolated…
“I have a great family and I have awesome friends and I really don’t live my life, like, it sounds stupid for me to say, but I really don’t live it in like a celebrity-ish way. Like, I really did spend many years being so scared of the outside world and of paparazzi…I also just didn’t go out. I didn’t have friends. I didn’t want to do anything because I was really scared and I didn’t know how to exist in the world. And that was so lonely and isolating and not fair. And I have really done a lot of work to be able to exist in the world, and I think that’s what keeps me on my feet. And being out in the sun is really important, and friends are really important. I didn’t really have many for a long time and, I don’t know, my friendships have been like the most important thing in my life aside from like, my brother. My brother is the most important thing in my life, and my parents.”
Billie tells Apple Music why HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is her favorite album of hers…
“Honestly, I feel the most proud of this album, like more than anything I’ve ever made and that we’ve ever made. And I think we both were in agreement about that. I was super excited for it to come out. But I was also like, I want to keep this for myself. But it was one of those things that I…because I loved it so much, because Finneas and I really, you know, specifically tried to make an album that we would have made even if no one would ever hear it. We tried to make an album we would love, and not for the outside world necessarily, but obviously, we were going to share it, but just more in a way of not trying to please or try to make something specific or do it for anybody but ourselves. And because of that, we made our favorite thing we’d ever made.”
FINNEAS tells Apple Music about how the process of creating an album together changes as he and Billie get older…
“We’re maybe more critical and judgmental of other work and also our own. And so I think that can trip you up when you’re working on something, because you remember how it felt to make your album when you were 17. And when you’re 17, you think you’re the shit, right? Because you are. When you’re 17, you’re like, ‘We are awesome.’ And then when you’re 22 or 21 or whatever age Billie was when we were making this album, she’s being like triple, quadruple as thoughtful. And so she’s like, I think I can do a better vocal take. I think I can write a better lyric for that. And so your kind of experience is less like full of self-satisfaction. You know, I think it makes you make better art because I think you work harder for it. But I think that can be an odd experience. You’re like, this doesn’t feel good.”
Billie tells Apple Music about why hearing fans sing along to THE GREATEST on tour is extra special…
“When I did the first show of my tour that I’m on right now, specifically, “THE GREATEST” just has a lot of, it’s just a special one to us, but I did “THE GREATEST” and I took one of my in-ears out and I just like, heard this giant arena filled with people singing it, and they were singing every other song too, but something about hearing that song that has this meaning for me and this memory for me, and also like the memory of us making it and what it gave us in our kind of creative spirit. And just hearing that crowd sing it, it really made me like, have, you know, in front of me proof. I could see it with my eyes, I could hear it with my ears. And that is something that I hold so close to me. And every time I get a chance to really see how what I do or whatever impacts people in real time, that’s the stuff.
FINNEAS tells Apple Music what its like to become coworkers with a sibling when you’re still teenagers…
“When I was 18 and Billie was 13, turning 14, we made “Ocean Eyes.” And so right at the crossroads of like, our lives are about to get much more separate, right? She was probably about to go to a high school, and I was about to do whatever, you know, and we were about to spend much less time together, and instead we spent more time than we’d ever spent together. Suddenly we were coworkers, and we love each other. So it turned out to be awesome. But that’s a kind of an odd, unusual, you know, you talk to your friends that are siblings and they grow up and there’s more distance. They talk on the phone. They live in different states. They live in different countries. And we got closer and closer because we became like coworkers, basically. And so I think a lot of what we’ve learned as adults, we’ve just learned together.”