Billie Eilish’s New, Playful Persona

The first time Billie Eilish appeared on Saturday Night Live, the then-17-year-old put her famously green hair in two topknots, donned a graffiti-print outfit, and climbed the walls of a rotating room to underscore her eerie, enigmatic image.

In the past year, she’s recorded the newest James Bond theme song, dropped her second album, released an Apple TV+ documentary, put on a concert on Disney+, co-chaired the 2021 Met Gala, and prepared to launch a perfume.

“The real reason I wore big, oversized clothes back then is I was actually two kids stacked on top of each other trying to sneak into an R-rated movie,” she said.

With that weighty notion hanging over the episode, Eilish gamely participated in several tepid sketches that oscillated between trying to play into her new, loose persona and trying to play against type.

She did find a comedic groove with the SNL cast during a digital short called “Lonely Christmas.” Partnered with Kate McKinnon, who’d returned to the show for the first time this season, Eilish could step back and let the golden goddess of character work do her thing, twisting a seemingly sweet holiday tale into a delightfully dark blend of The Act and Rear Window.

Her frankness as an artist—her appetite and talent for honestly casting ugly moments—has made her fascinating to watch compared with her pop peers, and she leaned into that theme.

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