In a surprise public announcement just a day earlier, the inaugural Apple Music Awards took place on Wednesday December 4, 2019. The streaming service had announced the winners of their initial four awards- Artist of the Year: Billie Eilish, Songwriters of the Year Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, Breakthrough Artist of the Year: Lizzo, and Song of the Year: “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X. The event took place at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple’s Cupertino, CA headquarters with a special acoustic performance by Eilish and her brother FINNEAS. Prior to the show, Apple Music global creative director and Beats 1 host, Zane Lowe presented Eilish and her brother with the awards.
Eilish performed with her brother in front of a forest-like backdrop of trees to an adoring crowd that appeared to be at the theater’s 1000 person capacity limit. Kicking off the set with her 2016 breakthrough, “Ocean Eyes”, the audience was immediately singing along and didn’t stop as she went into “Bellyache” and “Copycat”. Eilish reveled in the fact that she rarely does acoustic sets stating, ““I wish I could give you guys an actual show. But here we are. But it’s cute. I’ve never done an acoustic performance for you guys so I’m so pleased to do it and I’m so close to you!” Right after, she and FINNEAS launched into “ilomilo”, which Eilish noted, “we’ve never done acoustically, ever.” The set included her recent release, “Everything I Wanted” and ended with “When The Party’s Over”.
The setlist included:
• Ocean Eyes
• Bellyache
• Copycat
• Party Favor/8
• Idontwannabeyouanymore
• Wish You Were Gay
• All The Good Girls Go to Hell
• Xanny
• Bad Guy
• ilomilo
• Come Out and Play
• Bury a Friend
• Listen Before I Go
• I Love You
• Everything I Wanted
• When The Party’s Over
