One of the highlights of the 92nd Academy Awards on Sunday night was Billie Eilish’s rendition of “Yesterday.”
The 18-year-old singer, accompanied by her brother and musical partner Finneas, performed the Beatles classic during the In Memoriam segment of the show.
Eilish has frequently spoken about being a fan of the Beatles. “If you listen to my music and what I create and what me and my brother create together, there’s so much Beatles inspiration in there if you really listen for it,” Eilish told MTV Push last April. “Just cause their lyrics and their harmonies are unbelievable, they’re so nice to your ear, they just feel good to listen to.”
“Yesterday” was written by Paul McCartney (though credited to John Lennon, too) about the end of a relationship, and recorded solely by McCartney. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard chart shortly after its release in September 1965.
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McCartney’s designer daughter Stella collaborated with Eilish on a collection last year. “She spoke of that real admiration for their songwriting, and I sense that when I listen to her work, and her brother’s writing,” Stella told i_D. “There’s obviously a modernity to Billie’s work, but I think that there’s a lot of beauty in the arrangements of her music, the harmonizing and the structure, that’s heavily influenced by The Beatles’s writing and work.”
Eilish could very likely be back at the Oscars next year. She and Finneas wrote and recorded the theme song for the new James Bond film No Time To Die. Adele and Sam Smith won Best Original Song at the Academy Awards for the themes to Skyfall and Spectre respectively.