Billie Eilish Reacts To Fans Using Their Phones At Her Concerts

As the debate around phone etiquette at gigs rages on, Billie Eilish has admitted she thinks people need to relax on the subject.

During a new interview with NME, the chart-topping US star was asked what she made of scenes in her new concert depicting a sea of mobile phones in the crowd.

“I just think that’s what it’s like,” the Bad Guy singer responded, when “asked if her fans get a bad rap” over their penchant for recording so much on their phones at her gigs.

She continued: “My generation, and the generations below, we love to film stuff. All I do is film and take pictures of stuff – all of the time.

“When I was young and would go to concerts or festivals, I would film every single minute of it – and then I would watch every single video that I took over and over until I even had the audio of the crowd memorised. I think that’s not to be pooh-poohed.”

Billie added: “An important part of the culture is that we are all on our goddamn phones! It keeps us connected. It does!”

Not all of Billie’s music industry peers agree with her on this matter, though.

Last year, Sabrina Carpenter admitted that she’d “never had a better experience at a concert” than a Silk Sonic gig she’d attended, where guests had to lock away their phones.

Conceding that it may “piss off” her fans, Sabrina said she’d “absolutely” consider implementing a similar policy at her own shows.

“I’ve grown up in the age of people having iPhones at shows. It unfortunately feels super normal to me,” she told Rolling Stone, but agreed with Billie that she “can’t blame people for wanting to have memories”.

On Madonna’s 2019 theatre tour, guests were required to conceal their phones in locked pouches that could only be opened if they left the arena.

“If you cannot experience Madame X theatre without the use of a recording device – then this show is not for you,” she claimed at the time (though it’s perhaps worth noting that the Like A Prayer has repeatedly been called out for her own phone use in the past, including once during a screening of 12 Years A Slave and another instance while watching Hamilton on Broadway).

Jack White, Bob Dylan and Alicia Keys are among the other artists who have introduced rules about phone use at their shows in recent history.