Saudade is a Portuguese phrase that may be roughly outlined as a sense of melancholy, nostalgia or craving for one thing that’s beloved however not current. There is not any excellent translation, however one of many closest English expressions of the phrase I’ve ever seen is Billie Eilish‘s Tiny Desk efficiency.
You’d suppose the Los Angeles-born singer invented the time period. Each breath is so stuffed with indulgent melancholy, hopeful remorse, at 22 years previous she’s turn out to be a charming fixture of what it means, or slightly what it feels, to like and lose concurrently.
Buying and selling belting vocals and rocking guitar for mild piano and almost-breaking falsetto, she reimagines tracks like “THE GREATEST” of their most uncooked and trustworthy kind. In Eilish’s world, love’s purest types are inherently terrifying. Therein lies her starpower – she effortlessly, relentlessly brings to the fore the trickier feelings many people tuck away for worry of what the world would possibly suppose.
“I do not know what I am crying for, I do not suppose I might love you extra,” she sings on “BIRDS OF A FEATHER.” Seems the world is made up of lots of people who simply need to be seen, and this stripped down set is the right area for Eilish to provide listeners simply that.
SET LIST
- “THE GREATEST”
- “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE”
- “i really like you”
- “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”
MUSICIANS
- Billie Eilish: vocals
- Finneas: guitar
- Andrew Marshall: drums
- Solo Smith: bass
- Abe Nouri: piano
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Bobby Carter
- Director/Editor: Maia Stern
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Sequence Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Body, Alanté Serene
- Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
- Manufacturing Assistant: Ashley Pointer
- Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez
- Tiny Desk Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
- Government Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins