Billie Eilish used the opening night of her world tour to deliver a powerful statement about body image. In a video played during her set in Miami, Billie, 18, removed her top as she lowered herself into a pool of tar-like black liquid, while addressing the narrative surrounding the way she dresses in a voiceover.

Billie Eilish performing on the first night of her tour © Getty Images

“You have opinions about my opinions, about my music, about my clothes, about my body,” she said. “Some people hate what I wear, some people praise it. Some people use it to shame others, some people use it to shame me.”

The video follows Billie’s admission, on several occasions, that she does not appreciate commentary on her now signature, oversized silhouette—including from those who praise her for it. According to the singer, the latter response effectively vilifies and slut-shames her peers who do choose do wear revealing clothes. “If what I wear is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I am a slut,” she said in the video. “So while I feel your stares, your disapproval or your sighs of relief, if I lived by them, I’d never be able to move.”

As well as the way women dress, the Grammy winner also addressed perception of body size in the clip. “Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? Do my shoulders provoke you? Does my chest? Am I my stomach? My hips? The body I was born with, is it not what you wanted?” she asked. Billie, who consistently keeps her body wrapped in ambiguous silhouettes, submerges herself totally in the black liquid in the video, which concludes, “Though you’ve never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why? You make assumptions about people based on their size. We decide who they are. We decide what they’re worth.”

Expected to be played throughout Billie’s Where Do We Go world tour, which will bring her to the UK in July, the singer’s empowering message is the thought-provoking clapback to gender-based hypocrisy that every young person—whether in the public eye or not—will benefit from hearing.

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