Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour was the seventh headlining concert tour by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, in support of her third studio album Hit Me Hard and Soft (2024). The tour, which was announced on April 29, 2024, started on September 29, 2024, at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, and concluded on November 23, 2025, at Chase Center in San Francisco. Nat & Alex Wolff, Towa Bird, The Marías, Young Miko, Ashnikko, Finneas, Tom Odell, Lola Young, Syd, Magdalena Bay, Yoasobi, Fujii Kaze, and Men I Trust performed as supporting acts.
An accompanying 3D concert film, documenting the Manchester shows and co-directed by Eilish and James Cameron, was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on May 8, 2026. A live album, Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live), was released the same month, similarly featuring performances from Manchester.
Background and development Billie Eilish announced the release of her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, on April 8, 2024. On April 29, a few weeks before the album's release, she announced the dates for Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour. The announcement was followed by a tour trailer posted on her official YouTube account consisting of a compilation of videos from her previous concerts and a teaser of the song "Lunch", which she previously teased at Coachella. She announced 81 dates across North America, Oceania, and Europe. On September 30, she announced two additional dates for Inglewood to be held on December 20 and 21 at the Kia Forum, bringing the total to five shows at the venue. On May 19, 2025, Eilish announced two shows in Japan and a second North American leg.
Ticketing Tickets for the tour were sold primarily by Ticketmaster and the sales for the US leg started on April 30, 2024, with a pre-sale for American Express Card Members only. There were some additional pre-sales throughout the week, with remaining tickets sold during the general sale, which began on May 3.
To prevent ticket scalping, Eilish used Ticketmaster's Face Value Exchange, where those who purchased tickets could only resell their ticket for the same price they initially paid. Eilish also chose to make the tickets mobile only and restricted from transfer. To further support fair access, ticket delivery was delayed until two weeks prior to the date of the concert.
Staging and production Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour featured a highly immersive 360º stage design, allowing Eilish to connect with the audience from all angles and creating a consistently intimate atmosphere despite the arena scale. The stage design included an enormous LED floor that acted as a constantly changing visual surface, synchronized with the music and lighting design. It also featured two sunken band pits, eight multimedia towers positioned around the arena, and massive overhead screens that shifted and transformed during the performance, shaping the visual identity of each song.
A floating platform and a luminescent LED cube suspended above the stage further expanded the vertical dimension of the production, functioning as a central visual element that displayed dynamic imagery and abstract visuals. The show also featured a B-stage, located at the corner of the arena, where Eilish performed some songs, strengthening the sense of unpredictability and closeness with the audience.
Concert synopsis The show had an approximate duration of one hour and thirty minutes. It begins with all arena lights turned off, with only the LED cube in the center of the stage remaining illuminated. An instrumental track starts playing, containing a portion of the lyrics and melody of "The Greatest". The cube is gradually lifted until Eilish appears on top of it. She then opens the show with "Chihiro", singing part of the song on top of the cube before descending to perform the remaining section on the main stage. The next track is "Lunch", during which Eilish runs across the entire stage, giving attention to all sides of the arena. She then performs "NDA" and "Therefore I Am".
Eilish takes a short break to speak with the audience and then continues with "Wildflower", keeping the performance focused at the center of the stage. Afterward, she pauses again to talk to the fans and asks them to remain silent for the next song, "When the Party's Over". She sits on the stage floor and begins the song a cappella, looping her own vocals to build harmonies. Eilish continues the show with "The Diner", followed by "Ilomilo". "Bad Guy" comes next, during which she once again moves and runs across the entire stage while filming her band members and herself using a vlog-style camera that projects live footage onto the screens. In "The Greatest", Eilish performs the entire song on a suspended platform in the middle of the stage.
She then begins the most acoustic section of the show, performing seated at the center of the stage alongside her backing vocalists and longtime best friends, Jane and Ava Horner. With a guitar in hand, she sings and plays "Your Power" (during early shows she performed "Male Fantasy" instead). She then performs "Skinny", followed by "TV", again playing the guitar while standing up. A short interlude featuring a segment of "Bittersuite" follows, leading into "Bury a Friend" and then "Oxytocin". During the beginning of "Guess", Eilish disappears from the main stage and reappears on the B-stage, being launched up into the air. Still on the B-stage, she performs "Everything I Wanted", again taking the vlog-style camera and filming fans while moving down from the stage into the crowd.
Eilish returns to the main stage, where she performs shortened piano versions of "Lovely", "Idontwannabeyouanymore", and "Ocean Eyes". The next track is "L'Amour de Ma Vie" and its extended edit, "Over Now". She performs the second part of the song on a suspended platform above the stage. She pauses once again to speak with the fans and introduces her band members, thanking everyone involved in the making of the tour as well as the audience. "What Was I Made For?" follows, with Eilish sitting at the edge of the stage and interacting with fans. She then performs a shortened version of "Happier Than Ever", playing the rock section on electric guitar. The last song is "Birds of a Feather", during which confetti falls over the audience. Eilish says goodbye to the fans as the instrumental outro of "Blue" plays in the background. She then descends from the stage, picks up the vlog-style camera and films herself running through the crowd toward the backstage.
Critical reception The tour was received with rave reviews from critics. Lindsay Zoladz of The New York Times praised Eilish's ability to bring the intimacy of her songs to the arena stage, noting her "suddenly transforming acoustic numbers into arena-rocking power ballads and playing the adoring audience like a well-tuned instrument". Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today pointed to Eilish's authenticity with her audience, saying that "There is no artifice to her. No questioning her level of sincerity when she tells fans at the end of the show, 'I will always cherish you ... I will always fight for you.
Writing for The Guardian, Rob LeDonne complimented Eilish's ability to connect with the audience, calling her "the master of playful confidence, a quality on full display". Kyle Denis from Billboard highlighted the fact that Eilish plays multiple instruments throughout the show, showcasing her ability on piano, acoustic guitar and electric guitar: "From writing to acting, the world has been getting familiar with Billie's countless talents for years — but seeing her flaunt most of them in one setting never gets old." For Variety, Chris Willman called Eilish "a special gift ... to the pop landscape", complimenting her vocals during the show and noting that she became "one of pop's best vocalists".
Brendan Hay of Spin wrote that every element of the show "highlighted her unique ability to blend pulse-pounding beats with gentle vocals for a vibe I can only describe as 'grandly intimate. Deadlines Anthony D'Alessandro said that the show has a lot of standout moments, noting that Eilish's "performance wattage is what's bedazzling in how she can take the singles from her recent chill, self-reflective album Hit Me Hard and Soft and turn them up onstage to 11 (in Spinal Tap volume speak), whether it's bass or belting". Nui Te Koha from the Herald Sun in Melbourne said that Eilish "redefined the meaning of a truly spectacular arena concert. She is a siren of the times, a natural performer, and deeply cares about her fans." The writer added that "for all the bells and whistles, and there were many, the show always tapped into the essence of a singer-songwriter who crafted, and recorded, significant pop masterpieces in her bedroom and became a global megastar".
The European leg of the tour received rave reviews from critics. Annabel Nugent from The Independent gave four stars out of five and wrote that "Professional though she is ... Eilish still manages to feel spontaneous. What she lacks in back-up dancers and choreography, she makes up for in pure, Duracell bunny energy." Rob Meyers from Clash called Eilish "an enigma; a screen first child of her generation" and "a true talent with the voice of an angel, building a legacy one wounded confessional at a time". Katie Hawthorne from The Guardian also gave four stars out of five and called Eilish "pop's sharpest commentator" as she "plays with fame's power dynamics" and "balances intimacy and spectacle, filming her screaming fans as she paces a stage akin to a boxing ring". Hawthorne added that "Eilish is the rare pop star just as interested in watching her audience perform, and it feels both intimate and combative to be looked at like that". Thomas Turner from The Line of Best Fit called Eilish the "forerunner" of Gen Z, writing that she "has always had a symbiotic relationship with the zeitgeist and pushed forward the envelope of pop culture". Turner also noted the amount of care put into the show, calling her a "gladiator on display, hurtling between all vantage points to allow everyone in attendance a near front row seat".
Commercial performance At Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena, Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour broke the 18-year-old single event attendance record previously set by Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveShow. The new record set on February 28, 2025, boasted 21,001 attendees, surpassing the previous mark of 20,839 held by Timberlake for the November 13, 2007, show. Three of the four dates broke the previous arena attendance record. At Prague's O2 Arena, the tour broke the seven-year-old single event attendance record previously set by Metallica's WorldWired Tour. The new record set on June 1, 2025, generated 20,209 attendees, surpassing the previous mark of 20,174 held by the band for the April 2, 2018, show.
In 2025, Forbes listed Eilish as the 16th-highest-paid musician, grossing an estimated $190 million from 70 shows during the year. She was the youngest member of the year's top earners' club.
Documentation
A concert film documenting the tour's Manchester shows, titled Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), was first teased in July 2025 and later set for theatrical release by Paramount Pictures in November. Released on May 8, 2026, it was co-directed and co-produced by Eilish and Canadian filmmaker James Cameron. Parallel to the release of the film, Eilish also announced a limited edition vinyl of Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live) on April 16, featuring all the songs performed on the tour's set list. Eilish released the tour's intro track on streaming platforms on April 24, and the album arrived on May 1.
Activism and impact Political statements