Watch Billie Eilish Nail Sally’s Spooky ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Songs
Elfman also brought out a full-bore band for a Halloween encore of “Dead Man’s Party.”
Billie Eilish had herself in stitches — the drawn-on kind — as she very solemnly voiced the barely-sewed-up Sally in two weekend live-to-film performances of the music for “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” bringing new life to Danny Elfman’s perennially undead L.A. Halloween tradition.
Being revived as a concert event for the first time in three years — but this time over two nights at L.A.’s newish Banc of California Stadium, a bigger venue than the shows’ previous home at the Hollywood Bowl — the “Nightmare Before Christmas” shows featured Elfman reviving his lead role of Jack Skellington (and a brief turn as the supporting character Barrel), Paul Reubens and Ken Page reviving their original 1993 turns as Lock and Oogie Boogie, and “Weird Al” Yankovic doing Shock for the first time.
Naturally, though, some of the audience only had eyes for the young pop superstar joining Yankovic as a newcomer to the occasional concert franchise, Eilish — even though her one solo number, “Sally’s Song,” lasts a grand total of 1:47 on the soundtrack. Eilish also returned for a duet part with Elfman on the closing “Finale/Reprise,” joining hands with both the singer-composer and his avatar, a giant animatronic figure of Skellington.
Along with the “stitches” on her arms to reflect the lovelorn character’s Frankenstein-ian origins, Eilish wore an original dress that looked like a high-fashion variation on a ragdoll look. Taking the place of original soundtrack singer Catherine O’Hara (who voiced the role on stage the last time the production was mounted, for three nights at the Bowl in 2018), the pop star proved an ideal vocal fit for the heartsick ballad, making it as sweet as it was short — in her hands, a tune that could almost fit in between “When the Party’s Over” and “I Love You,” a couple of equally austere ballads that could have been right up Sally’s alley.
Billie Eilish sings Sally at Banc of California Nightmare show
Watch Billie Eilish perform as Sally in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ live-to-film concert
Eilish’s casting was announced earlier this month. In addition to Eilish and Elfman, “Weird Al” Yankovic voiced Lock. Ken Page, another original cast member, played the part of Oogie Boogie.
Eilish released her second studio album, ‘Happier Than Ever’, earlier this year. NME gave it five stars upon its release, writing that “the star has repeated the success of her stellar debut – without repeating any of its tricks”.
Since releasing ‘Happier Than Ever’, Eilish took part in the Disney+ concert film Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles, which saw the singer perform every song from album in sequential order from the stage of the Hollywood Bowl, backed by the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Eilish has also performed as part of the line-ups for Austin City Limits, Life Is Beautiful, Global Citizen Live and the iHeartRadio Music Festival. She will headline Glastonbury in 2022.
Billie Eilish & Danny Elfman perform (Simply Meant to Be) from The Nightmare Before Christmas 2021
We have a video here featuring Danny Elfman and Billie Eilish performing songs as Jack Skellington and Sally in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in costume!
Elfman and Eilish are dressed as their characters at The Nightmare Before Christmas live-to-film concert experience at the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday.
Eilish performed the solo ballad “Sally’s Song” before Elfman joined in for the “Finale/Reprise”. You can check out the video below. It seems like it would have been a fun concert to attend, especially for fans of the classic film.
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert Elfman is an American composer, singer, and songwriter.
(born May 29, 1953)
He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores, as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall.
Billie Eilish Joins Danny Elfman, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic and Paul Reubens at ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Shows
After that exit, the lights remained down, as much of the crowd knew what was coming but some departed, a random test guitar squall indicating that, sure enough, the evening would end with a non-“Nightmare” nightmare: “Dead Man’s Party.” The Oingo Boingo after-life classic was the theme song of the annual Halloween shows Elfman’s former group used to do in the 1980s and ’90s before the group broke up and that tradition got supplanted (in non-annual years) by this one.
The big band — that is, the orchestra — played on, but Mauceri’s epic crew was joined for “Dead Man” by an actual rock band, in the form of Matt Chamberlain on a drum kit brought out at far stage right, Stu Brooks on bass and, joining Elfman on guitar, fellow ex-Boingo member and longtime Elfman orchestrator Steve Bartek.
Did this lineup foretell what Elfman might bring to Coachella in April, if he is able to keep the invitation the festival previously issued for him to come out and do his first live rock performances in decades? Perhaps, although Elfman didn’t make any mention of what else they might be assembling for. Elfman introduced that encore Sunday as “a little Halloween trick or treat for you. Because you gave up trick or treating tonight, and I really appreciate that.”
Even though Elfman has made it clear in interviews (like the one he did with Variety earlier this year for his album “Big Mess”) that he’s not someone who has a need to perform on concert stages, he seemed exultant in the occasion, saying the shows were “making me feel almost like life has returned.” Even after the shows went on sale in the spring, he admitted,” I honestly didn’t think it would happen. There were so many reasons it wouldn’t. then here we are. We’re doing this, right? And it’s live. We’re not even streaming it from a stage somewhere.”
The weekend shows were produced, as they had been at the Bowl in previous years, by Elfman’s managers, Laura Engel and Richard Kraft, who’ve also put on live-to-picture presentations of “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast” with Disney concerts.Alison Ahart Williams, Tim Fox and Georgina Ryder of AMP Worldwide also produced.
Danny Elfman and orchestra Dead Man at Banc of California Stadium
Before the event, Eilish shared a photo of her name printed over the credits for the live show, and she captioned it with ”peeing my pants i’m so excited.”
Eilish’s second studio album Happier Than Ever was released in July.
The 19-year-old has come a long way since she was first launched to stardom as young teen. On October 19, she returned to be interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live, confronting him about making her “look stupid” on his show in 2019.
During that interview, he questioned her about various pop culture figures from the mid-eighties and she seemed not to get his references, in particular Van Halen.
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billie ellish leaked video
Billie Eilish wows fans with her performance
Billie Eilish performed a fan-favorite song from The Nightmare Before Christmas alongside its creator Danny Elfman over the weekend.
The 19-year-old music sensation took the stage at the Banc of California stadium for the live-to-film concert experience and performed Sally’s Song from the movie which came out nearly 30 years ago.
The Grammy-winner wore a patchwork dress styled to look just as Sally’s did in the 1993 classic. She let her short blonde hair fall to the top of her shoulders.
Eilish wasn’t the only star to take the stage in honor of the movie musical. Paul Reubens, who had a small role in the original movie, and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic also added their voices to the concert.
Billie Eilish and Dakota Johnson dazzle in elaborate outfits as they put on a cosy display at Gucci Love Parade show in LA
She performed a song from The Nightmare Before Christmas over the weekend alongside its creator Danny Elfman.
And on Tuesday night, Billie Eilish, 19, stepped out to attend the Gucci Love Parade show at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles alongside Dakota Johnson, 32.
The pair dazzled in elaborate outfits and cosied up for photographers at the star-studded event.
Billie donned a floor-length gown that featured lace detailing throughout; she added a long scarf in the same color.