Billie Eilish’s Tiny Desk Concert
During the pandemic, Billie Eilish did a Tiny Desk Concert at home amidst a very faithful recreation of the NPR office. Last week, Eilish played a proper set at the actual office. From the video’s description:
Saudade is a Portuguese word that can be roughly defined as a feeling of melancholy, nostalgia or yearning for something that is beloved but not present. There’s no perfect translation, but one of the closest English expressions of the word I’ve ever seen is Billie Eilish’s Tiny Desk performance.
You’d think the Los Angeles-born singer invented the term. Every breath is so full of indulgent melancholy, hopeful regret, at 22 years old she’s become a captivating fixture of what it means, or rather what it feels, to love and lose simultaneously.
Accompanied by a small band and her brother Finneas, Eilish played The Greatest, L’Amour de Ma Vie, i love you, and Birds of a Feather. Lovely.
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FYI she’s back doing another edition of the Variety interview with the same questions https://youtu.be/nOpHUzILBPg
Oh interesting! I didn't even think to check because she said in 2022 that she was only going to release one every few years. Looking forward to it!
This series is so special. It's fascinating to get to watch this unusually talented and smart person grow and change throughout these interviews.
Just a small comment: what I love about saudade is that it can also be applied to the present and the future. You can feel saudade in the middle of a joyous time when you realize it will eventually be over. A lovely heartbreaking concept.
When I had an extended stay in Portugal, a person we met described saudade as “the presence of absence,” which is a phrase that has stuck in my mind ever since.
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