Why get an 18-year old to sing James Bond’s “No Time to Die” theme? asked this boomer. The thought got me to Google ‘Billie Eilish’ and spent hours enjoying her songs on an EDSA anniversary afternoon.
From the silent whispers to the full orchestra and guitar riffs of the James Bond piece, I drifted towards a concert set and watch Billie Eilish dance on stage, the very silent “I Love You,” and a priest reflecting on her emotionally searing “Everything I Wanted” suicide track.
Perhaps, the subject brought me far from thinking again about the first EDSA uprising in the Philippines some 34 years ago. Reading in Facebook about Marcos loyalists foster the lie that martial law prevented communists from taking over in 1972 depressed me.
And I wandered into the silent, still depressing tracks of Billie Eilish.
Azalea, my 15-year-old youngest daughter, obviously found it disconcerting his nearly senior (I’m 59) dad liked listening to Billie songs.
“That’s not your crowd,” she flatly said when I shared about a Billie Eilish concert in Manila this September 2020.
However, I’m certain Billy Eilish would gain a huge following by then after the showing of 25th Bond movie “No Time to Die.” Eilish is the youngest artist to perform a James Bond theme.
Wikipedia says the world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London is set on 31 March 2020, followed by its theatrical release globally from 2 April 2020 in the United Kingdom and on 10 April 2020 in the United States. Theaters all over the Philippines should be featuring “No Time to Die” in early April.
From a marketing point of view, Billie Eilish singing for the latest James Bond movie sought to hook the Gen Z crowd to the 25th Bond movie.
On the other hand, the sad Eilish track sought to hook generations of boomers. And, judging from my reaction, she nailed it.
I could still remember Sean Connery saying “Bond. James Bond” in the reruns of Dr. No and “Goldfinger” in double offerings at Mansion Theater in Junquera Street in downtown Cebu City as a high school student. I recall entering the theater after lunch with just 50 centavos and come out at nearly 5 pm dizzy after watching two Bond movies.
Now, I’m dying to see Daniel Craig in his last appearance as James Bond as she gained a boomer fan.
In Between Columns 