Hit Me Hard and Soft is Billie Eilish’s third studio album and one of her best albums yet. The album goes through so many emotions yet only has ten songs on it. Every single song on the album means something special to Billie or to her fans. In the first 24 hours of release, the album received 72.7 million streams on Spotify.
For Billie Eilish’s newest album Hit Me Hard and Soft, she decided to go on another world tour. This latest tour, which started at the Videotron Center in Quebec City, Canada on September 29, sold out in minutes. The tour is currently winding its way through the US and then takes a six-week break before going to Australia, Scandenavia, central Europe, Italy, France, Spain, and England. The tour will end at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland on July 27, 2025.
The Hit Me Hard and Soft tour came to Denver’s Ball Arena for two nights, November 19 and 20. I went on the 19th with my friend and my mom. I sat in the third balcony, which gave me a pretty good view for the price. The concert was an hour and a half long, not including the opening acts.
There are three openers for the United States leg of the tour: Nat and Alex Wolff, The Marias, and Towa Bird. The Denver shows featured Nat and Alex Wolff, two brothers who are musicians and Hollywood actors (Nat starred in Death Note and Alex starred in Hereditary and A Quiet Place: Day One). The Wolff brothers are two of Billie Eilish’s closest friends and were better than expected. Typically, opening acts are just small artists whose songs aren’t known very well, but the songs the two brothers sang had lots of fans singing and dancing along. One of the songs they performed was their newest single “Soft Kissing Hour,” which Eilish helped produce.
While this was the Hit Me Hard and Soft tour, Eilish sang songs from all three of her studio albums, including songs from her EP Don’t Smile at Me. She opened with “Chihiro,” one of the tracks on Hit Me Hard and Soft. “Chihiro” was a great song to open with because the song is one of Billie’s favorites. The song is inspired by the character Chihiro in the film Spirited Away. This film shows Chihiro gaining new appreciations and perspectives in life.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Eilish said, “The song is loosely based off that movie, which is one of my favorites. It’s kind of from her point of view, mixed with mine. The visuals in that movie are some of the best ever.” Other songs she included from her latest album were “L’Amour De Ma Vie,” “The Greatest,” “Lunch,” “Wildflower,” “The Diner,” “Skinny,” and bits and pieces of “Blue” and “Bittersuite.”
Eilish also sang some of her greatest hits: “What Was I Made For?” the song Eilish made for the Barbie movie that also won a Grammy for song of the year; “Bad Guy,” her breakout hit that topped the Billboard Hot 100 and 16 other international charts; and “Therefore I Am,” which also scored a spot in the Billboard Hot 100.
The closing song for the concert was “Birds of a Feather,” which is also from Hit Me Hard and Soft and made for a great end of the concert. “Birds of a Feather” is about being deeply in love with someone and loving them until the end. This song made a great closer because it was one of her most popular songs on Hit Me Hard and Soft and really wraps up the concert; toward the end of the song, confetti fell from the ceiling. Eilish likes to close her concerts with one of her most popular songs from that specific album; during her Happier Than Ever tour, she closed with “Happier Than Ever.”
Eilish mashed up some of her other songs during the concert, mixing short snippets together in an almost improvised way. The most memorable of these mashups blended together “Lovely,” the single she wrote with Khalid; “idontwannabeyouanymore” from the EP Don’t Smile at Me; and “Ocean Eyes,” also from Don’t Smile At Me. These songs fit together well because they all have similar vibes, and she played them all on the piano, which made the songs sound even better.
Eilish came out in oversized clothing (a staple in her life) and a backward baseball hat. Eilish is known for her eclectic and genderfluid outfits. Eilish’s clothing enhanced the concert by bringing out the vibe of her songs and albums. Eilish is typically seen wearing baggy jerseys to her concerts, and that gives her fans ideas permission to relax and have fun.
The staging during the concert was great and featured the typical concert trifecta of lights and lasers, fire, and fog. What set the concert apart from others visually was all of the visuals displayed on the big screens above the stage. During every song, the big screen showed Eilish singing as well as videos of her or other objects that had to do with the song. The images projected on the big screen during her songs were both beautiful and well chosen. During “Ocean Eyes,” waves were projected onto the stage and lights flashed to give the sensation that the waves were crashing. For the song “Guess” by Charli XCX featuring Eilish, green lights were flashing as well as lyrics from the song printed onto the stage. Clips from the music video were shown on the big screen as well. It felt like being in the middle of a club or a rave, which really fits the vibe of the song.
This is Eilish’s seventh tour, and the biggest difference between those tours and the Hit Me Hard and Soft tour is her movement. During her 2022 Happier Than Ever tour, Eilish danced around the stage with high energy and carefully choreographed moves. With this tour, Eilish replaced the dancing with moving about the stage and posing as she sang. This gave the show more of a special feeling since she didn’t move the same way at every show. There weren’t any background dancers, which is normal for Billie Eilish concerts. The only other people on the stage the whole time were the musicians. Billie brought her friends Ava and Jane Horner to sing in the background during “Skinny” and “Your Power.”
Beyond the show itself, I was very impressed by the merch stands and how Universal Music Group managed the concert. The quality of the merch is really good, and the prices weren’t too bad. The only bad thing about the merch is that some of it runs a bit small while other things run very large. The lines for the merch were crazy the whole time up until Billie came on stage. My mom had to go get merch during the show so that the line wouldn’t take so long, and when she got there, nobody was there.
The venue was packed, making it hard to get around easily, but getting into the stadium was easier than expected. There wasn’t a long line outside or inside before scanning tickets. The transitions between the opening act and Eilish’s performance dragged a bit. The opening act started at 7 and ended around 8. Billie didn’t come on until 8:45. A lot of people thought she started earlier, but she didn’t come out for a little while.
Overall, the Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard and Soft tour was definitely worth the $221 ticket price. I really enjoyed this concert because it was really an amazing experience, and Billie Eilish sings amazing live. Considering the fact that she had a cold during her nights in Denver, she still sang very well. If she decides to go on another tour in the future, I would definitely try to go. Concerts are really fun in general, but Billie Eilish really gives all she has to make sure her concert is the best for her fans.
