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Watch Billie Eilish Cover The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’ At The Oscars

Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press

A professed Beatles fan, pop star Billie Eilish has covered Paul McCartney‘s ‘Yesterday’ at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Introduced by noted director  Steven Spielberg,  the 18-year-old performed the song accompanied by brother and producer Finneas on piano.

The song, which originally appeared on Beatle album Help!, served as the score for an In Memorium segment depicting recently deceased actors Kirk Douglas, Doris Day, Peter Mayhew, rock filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, star athlete Kobe Bryant, and several others.

This is not the first time Eilish has covered the Beatles, in December 2019 she provided a ukelele rendition of another McCartney number, The White Album‘s ‘I Will’ on Jame’s Corden’s Carpool Karaoke.

Following in McCartney’s footsteps Eilish will also pen the theme for the forthcoming James Bond film.

I think that there’s a lot of beauty in the arrangements of her music,” Paul McCartney’s daughter and Billie Eilish fashion collaborator Stella McCartney shared of the pop star while in conversation with Teen Vogue last year, “the harmonizing and the structure, that’s heavily influenced by the Beatles’ writing and work. [She has] a strong message of identity and staying true to yourself, never compromising. That’s something the Beatles did too.”

In an interview with Variety Billie’s mother, Maggie Baird also commented on the Beatles connection: “I always say, it was actually the Beatles who taught them to write songs.”

‘Yesterday’ is considered by many to be one of McCartney‘s greatest achievement as a songwriter, even John Lennon professed that it was the one Beatles song he wished that he had written.

(So much so was the song imprinted by Paul’s personality the Beatles even considered releasing it as a solo McCartney single.)

It fell out of bed,” Paul McCartney once shared of the song between the pages of Rolling Stone. “I had a piano by my bedside, and I must have dreamed it because I tumbled out of bed and put my hands on the piano keys and I had a tune in my head. It was just all there, a complete thing. I couldn’t believe it. It came too easy.

Paul McCartney 2020 Tour Dates
05/23 – Lille, FR @ Pierre Mauroy Stadium
05/26 – Paris, FR @ Paris La Défense Arena
05/29 – Nijmegen, NL @ Goffert Park
05/31 – Bordeaux, FR @ Stadium Matmut
06/04 – Hannover, DE @ HDI Arena
06/07 – Lyon, FR @ Groupama Stadium
06/10 – Naples, IT @ Piazza Plebiscito
06/13 – Lucca, IT @ Mura Storiche
06/17 – Barcelona, ES @ Olympic Stadium
06/21- Werchter, BE @ TW Classic Festival
06/27 – Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Festival

 

 

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