What did Billie Eilish say during her recent Dublin show? Singer’s appreciation for being around Irish people sparks controversy online

Billie Eilish is going viral after clips of her recent Dublin show spread online, where she expressed appreciation for being around Irish people. The singer is currently on her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour. On July 26, 2025, she performed at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.

While interacting with the audience, Billie jokingly said that she enjoyed being surrounded by people who are "pasty" like her. She also noted that her extended family was in the crowd, watching her perform.

"As you guys know, I'm Irish, I'm not from here obviously, but it's really cool to come somewhere and like everybody looks exactly like you. You're all just as pasty as me. I love it. It makes me feel so seen. Also, 1,000 of my relatives are in the crowd right now, I'm pretty sure," she said.

The clip was posted on X by the user @gearoidmurphy_, garnering more than 20,000 likes and 9,000 retweets.

Billie Eilish celebrates return to Irish homeland. "It's really cool to come somewhere and everyone looks exactly like you". pic.twitter.com/uCXGOj5miy

— Gearóid Murphy (@gearoidmurphy_) July 28, 2025

Netizens criticized the singer for her statement, saying Billie's words allegedly had racial undertones.

"Billie really said 'wow that's a lot of white people, i like it here!'" one netizen wrote.

However, some fans defended the singer, saying Eilish was only appreciating people from her heritage. One user (@beethovenposay) said that Billie mentioned her skin tone because people supposedly call her "pale" in America.

"People want her to be racist so bad omg she's clearly talking about pale people because people call her pale in America," another netizen added.

Billie Eilish talked about her Irish heritage in a previous interview

The Birds of a Feather singer came to Ireland for the first time in 2019 to perform at the Electric Picnic, a music festival.

Elish told Today FM in an interview that she grew up in Los Angeles, California. While her parents, artists Patrick O'Connell and Maggie Baird, told her about her Irish-Scottish heritage, she had never been to Ireland. She also expressed that she found Ireland to be "really cool."

"My whole life I've been told by my parents that, you know, I'm Irish and Scottish and I'm like 'Okay, yay!' I'm mean it's cool but I just didn't have anything to base it on, never been to Ireland, you know. I didn't know anything really, and it's been actually really cool to come here," the singer said.

Billie Eilish showed appreciation for her hometown, Highland Park, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, in an interview with V Magazine in 2022. She claimed that the place, along with the people she grew up with, shaped her music, and she wouldn't be a singer without that neighborhood.

"It formed me. It made me who I am and gave me the opportunities that I got. I don't think I'd have any of the same anything if it wasn't for my hometown," Billie Eilish said.

The singer has not commented on the controversy yet. In other news, Billie Eilish's world tour, Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour, began in September 2024 and is scheduled to conclude on November 23, 2025.