The 20-year-old headliner, with help from guests Khalid and Damon Albarn, brings a thrilling mix of charm and bravado to the main stage
Billie Eilish’s stratospheric rise from Soundcloud teen to topping one of the world’s biggest music events has been nothing short of astonishing – and no one seems more surprised tonight than the pop sensation herself. “This is so weird. I should not be headlining this shit,” she says Saturday night at Coachella, with goofy disbelief. “It’s been three years, man.”
She’s right, her trajectory since she made her Coachella debut in 2019 has been breathlessly fast, already with two chart-topping albums, a Bond theme, seven Grammy awards and the hearts of pretty much every kid with TikTok on her endless list of achievements. Now another to add: at 20, this performance makes her the youngest festival headliner in Coachella history. But it’s these bashful confessions and say-what-you-feel relatability that has helped make her one of the world’s biggest stars. And she has the eviscerating show to match: part vampire rave, part Disney fantasy, which takes the audience to dizzying heights (and not just because she performs a bunch of songs in a cherry picker).
