Two of the night’s strongest performances came from young women using pianos to accompany the wispy, stratospheric upper reaches of their registers — and to comment on the tyranny of fragility and prettiness.
The second was Olivia Rodrigo, who nailed the vertiginous high notes that punctuate her rock-operatic smash “Vampire,” and then riffed on the song’s theme as she smeared herself with spurting fake blood.
Each performance, in its own way, felt like a rebuttal to the constricting standards to which so many young women are held.
Eilish’s was about the pain of being perceived as an object; Rodrigo’s reimagined the same kind of pressure as a horror movie.
LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Persons:
Billie Eilish, Barbie, Olivia Rodrigo, Eilish’s, LINDSAY ZOLADZ