Last night (June 27), The Late Late Show kicked off its week of episodes in London, and one of the episode’s guests was Billie Eilish (alongside Stranger Things’ David Harbour and a Lizzo “Carpool Karaoke” segment). London actually has a special place in Eilish’s career history, as her first-ever show as a headliner was at the city’s The Courtyard venue, on July 10, 2017. During the conversation, James Corden brought that up and Eilish reminisced about what it was like playing her first show and the confusing experience of meeting a fan in real life for the first time.
Eilish said:
“It was the first time I had ever been in Europe and I was with my whole family. I remember pulling up to the venue and it’s this tiny little door. Like you would never even know… it says ‘The Courtyard.’ There was this girl standing outside and she was with her mom. I was like, ‘What are they doing here? Who is that?’ I pulled up and she kind of looked at the car funny and I remember thinking, ‘This is weird. Why… who is that? Why would there be somebody standing there?’ And I opened the door and she looked at me and she looked so happy and surprised and I was like… [looks around] ‘What are you f*cking looking at?’ And she was the first person to ever stand in line to meet me ever in my life. And I gave her the biggest hug and I took a picture with her and I just held her. She was so sweet. It was really magical.”
She went on to note of the concert itself, “That night was just the most amazing thing. I think we only had, like, seven songs total that we even had. We had no other songs, we played every single song we had written, my brother and I, and I remember the crowd of a hundred and something sang along to ‘Ocean Eyes’ and I, like, swelled up and I got all, just… it was amazing. And then after the show, I went outside and I met every single person who came to the show, and I just talked to them all, every single person, and it took like two hours.”
Check out clips from Eilish’s Corden appearance above and below.