Billie Eilish didn’t mince words on Wednesday night (Nov. 6) during her show at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, less than a day after former President Donald Trump easily defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to secure his second White House term. The singer who had endorsed Harris — along with her brother/producer Finneas — was characteristically blunt in her assessment of Tuesday night’s results.
“Let’s say convicted predator, let’s say that,” Eilish said without naming Trump, who was found liable in 2023 for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and ordered to pay nearly $5 million in damages in that case, as well as $83.3 million second defamation ruling in the case; Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women dating back to the 1970s, has appealed the verdicts in the Carroll cases and denied all the allegations of sexual abuse.
Seated on stage with an acoustic guitar across her lap, Eilish admitted her heart was beating “so fast” as she referred to Trump, again without explicitly naming him, as someone who “hates women so, so deeply is about to be the President of the United States of America. This song is for all the women out there. I love you, I support you.”
Eilish paused as some in the crowd yelled “f–k Trump!”
“So this song is for all the women out there,” she continued before dedicating her 2021 Happier Than Ever ballad “Your Power” to the women in the crowd. The poignant lyrics include the lines, “Try not to abuse your power/ I know we didn’t choose to change/ You might not wanna lose your power/ But having it’s so strange.”
Eilish also told her fans that when she woke up that morning she “couldn’t fathom” doing a show that night, but as the day went on she realized the “privilege” of getting to perform for them after the let-down of Harris’ decisive loss to Trump, who will become the first convicted felon to ascend to the nation’s highest office.
“And the song that we’re about to do is… about the abuse that exists in this world upon women and a lot of the experiences that I have gone through and that people I know have gone through. And to tell you the truth, I’ve never met one single woman who doesn’t have a story of abuse. Not one,” she said at the show on her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour.
“I’ve dealt with some stuff myself and I have been taken advantage of. My boundaries were crossed to say it politely,” she added before telling them, “I just love you so much and I want you to know that you’re safe with me and you’re protected here and you are safe in this room.”
During a performance of her song “TV” — which references the overturning of Roe v. Wade following Trump’s appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices during his first term — Eilish sang, “The internet’s gone wild watching movie stars on trial/ While they’re overturning Roe v. Wade,” before standing mute for a few moments and then walking off stage without further comment.
Eilish was one of many stars who spoke out following Trump’s decisive victory on Tuesday night, writing on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday morning “it’s a war on women.”
