The clip debuted during the singer’s show in Miami on Monday night (March 9).
Billie Eilish kicked off her North American Where Do We Go? tour on Monday night (March 9) at AmericanAirlines Arena with a very important message about body shaming. Fan-shot clips of the video show Eilish, 18, wearing a vest before she takes it off to expose her bra and slips into a pool of black water.
“The body I was born with… is it not what you wanted?” asks the singer who has said in the past that she chose to purposely wear baggy clothes to avoid being sexualized. “You have opinions about my opinions, about my music, about my clothes, about my body… Some people hate what I wear, some people praise it, some people use it to shame others, some people use it to shame me — but I feel you watching.”
Eilish then talks about feeling constantly on display, feeling the stares of others, their disapproval and sighs of relief, secure that if she lived through other people’s view of her she’d never be able to do anything. “Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? Would you like me to be quiet? Do my shoulders provoke you? Does my chest? Am I my stomach? My hips?” she asks.
“The body I was born with – is it not what you wanted? If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I’m a slut. Though you’ve never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why?… We decide who they are. We decide what they’re worth. If I wear more; if I wear less, who decides what that makes me? What that means? Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?”
According to reports, the two-minute video was played near the end of Eilish’s 22-song set, just before “All the Good Girls Go To Hell.”
The show was also special for another reason: it featured a superstar summit meeting between Eilish and Jennifer Lopez. The Super Bowl halftime star posted pics of the moment when she and daughter Emme, 12, hung out with Billie backstage.
Check out the sweet snaps, and Eilish’s moving message, below.
