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Last week, big-deal pop star Bille Eilish released Hit Me Hard And Soft, her third album. It’s currently projected to debut at #2, since Taylor Swift just dropped some new colored-vinyl versions of The Tortured Poets Department. Last night, Stephen Colbert dedicated an entire episode of his Late Show to Billie Eilish. Eilish was Colbert’s only guest, and she did a long-ass interview and gave a performance.
Hit Me Hard And Soft had no advance singles, but after the record came out, Billie Eilish dropped the video for “Lunch,” its catchiest and most immediate song. “Lunch” is a statement as well as a song; it’s Eilish getting flirty and playful about same-sex desire. On last night’s Colbert, Eilish performed “Lunch” live for the first time. Her backing band, as usual, included her brother and collaborator Finneas, who played both guitar and keyboard. Eilish dressed like a Kris Kross member, gave off ineffable pop-star charisma, and looked like she was having fun.
Billie Eilish went on Colbert before last night, but she’d never actually met Stephen Colbert, since their previous meetings were over Zoom. They still worked up up a fun conversational chemistry, and they needed to, since they kept talking for three damn segments. Eilish talked about singing with Lana Del Rey at Coachella, spending six hours in a water tank to shoot her album cover, and what the new record means to her.
In the interview, there’s a fun moment where Colbert mentioned hearing Chet Baker in her voice, and she responded, “Dude!” She went on to say how much she loves singing, and she reeled off the names of Ella Fitzgerald, Julie London, Johnny Mathis, Harry Belafonte, and Sarah Vaughan. She also said she’d love to do an album of standards, which now seems inevitable. Do you know how many Grammys that thing is going to win when it comes out? Watch the performance and the interview below.
Also, Billie Eilish just dropped an extended version of her song “L’Amour De Ma Vie.” Here it is:
Hit Me Hard And Soft is out now on Darkroom/Interscope.