Review: How was Billie Eilish on Night 2 in St. Paul?

There were 98 Grammy categories announced on Friday for all kinds of recordings, including best video and best music film. If they added a category for best concert performance, Billie Eilish would undoubtedly have picked up another nomination.

Her sold-out concert Monday night at Xcel Energy Center was a masterwork of combining imagination and technology to enable her mostly intimate and sometimes hard-hitting music to connect with authentic personality and genuine emotion. The wow-inducing effects — from the floating platforms and LED cubes to the in-the-round rectangular stage lit from below — enhanced but never distracted from the performance. (Well, maybe the pyro seemed unnecessary on multiple songs.) It was easily one of the most outstanding big-venue concerts of the year.

The set list was identical to the one played Sunday at the X. Eilish sported a different athletic outfit, a blue-and-white horizontally striped rugby/polo shirt featuring patches for various teams and pirates (“Pirate” is literally one of her middle names) and baggie shorts with “HEAVEN” embroidered on them. And, after removing her ball cap early on, she wore a black-and-white striped stocking cap for much of the night.

Eilish, who will turn 23 in five weeks, was remarkably self-confident yet still able to sing about her vulnerabilities and insecurities and assure her fans — mostly female, mostly under 25 — that it’s OK to not feel OK but ultimately you’re going to be OK.

While Taylor Swift hits every carefully choreographed mark on her Eras Tour and knows exactly where the cameras are and when to pose for them, Eilish seems more natural, free-wheeling and fun-loving onstage.

To be sure, she is as self-aware as about-to-turn-35 Taylor is (and was at that age), but she seems more approachable like you could sit down and have a coffee, cry or hug or get silly with her.

Eilish got silly near the end of Monday’s nearly two-hour performance by picking up a handful of bras that fans had tossed onstage and goofily piling them on her head.

She told the fans how grateful she was for them. “I will always fight for you and try my best to protect you,” she said, sitting on the edge of the stage like she was in a living room for 18,000. “I will always have your back.”