The last thing Billie Eilish has to worry about is unfulfilled potential. Since her debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, rocketed to the top of the charts internationally back in March 2019, the teenage pop icon has barely stopped. If she wasn’t dropping music videos, she was appearing on the covers of magazines or winning a truly record-breaking number of Grammys. All that was left was the live shows to support it: an arena spectacular that kicked off at the start of the year but was postponed thanks to coronavirus. Now, Billie has announced that the “WHERE DO WE GO?” tour will be officially cancelled.
As concert promoters encourage the postponement of tours rather than straightforward cancellations, avoiding losing a huge chunk of revenue, Billie’s desire to get those hard-earned dollars back into the hands of her fans is encouraging. “We’ve tried as many different scenarios as possible for the tour but none are possible,” Billie said in a statement released via Twitter and Instagram, adding “…and, although I know so many of you want to hold onto your tickets and VIP passes, the best thing we can do for everyone is to get the money back into your hands as soon as we can.”
While fans may be disappointed that they never got to see what she had already teased as a mega live performance, there is a silver lining here. In her recent Vanity Fair yearly catch-up, she said she had 16 songs in the works with her producer brother FINNEAS. Could it be that a new album will be arriving sooner than we think?
Bear in mind that, had it not been cancelled, by the time Billie would formally re-kick off the “WHERE DO WE GO?” tour, over two years would’ve passed since her debut record dropped. This means that she’d be forced to spend another year performing songs from that record, before wrapping the tour and going back into popstar hiding ahead of eventually releasing her sophomore effort. The next record, for which the finish line may well be in sight, wouldn’t see the light of day until late 2022 at the earliest.
Cancelling the tour instead suggests something different: the “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP” era that won Billie a huge fanbase and accolades aplenty is winding down. Something new is coming. Exactly when that might be, though, we don’t know. In all honesty, she deserves a proper break; one that doesn’t involve the weirdness of a pandemic that’s been a stressing us all out for the past nine months. Once she’s recharged, rest assured Billie will be back with a new record — and a new tour — that will knock our socks off.