Billie Eilish's Expression at 2021 MTV VMAs Has Fans Thinking She Shaded Jennifer Lopez

By Anna Rumer

Did Billie Eilish shade Jennifer Lopez? The "Happier Than Ever" singer's reaction to the "Let's Get Loud" artist appearing on stage at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards certainly had viewers thinking so. As Lopez, 52, made her entrance on stage, drawing cheers from the audience, Eilish, 19, was caught on camera with an expressionless face, notably twiddling her fingers instead of clapping.

People watching at home certainly noticed the perceived snub. "Billie looked so uninterested in seeing Jennifer Lopez," one person tweeted, as another echoed, "Not Billie Eillish giving a blank stare when Jennifer Lopez walked on stage 😭😭" A different user commented, "Doesnt seem like billie cares for jennifer lopez." Despite what seems like shade, Lopez and Eilish previously made headlines when the Hustlers star took her then-12-year-old daughter to meet Eilish on the opening night of her Where Do We Go? tour in early 2020, chronicling the moment with a group hug photo on Instagram.

Eilish had an eventful VMAs beyond her facial expressions, being presented with the Video For Good award by Avril Lavigne. The Grammy-winner thanked her fans in an acceptance speech that she also used to spread a powerful message. "I just want to say that we need to protect our young women at all costs. For real," she said. "We also need to remember that we all have power, and we have to remember to not abuse it."

Eilish explores this message in "Your Power," a song she wrote about someone abusing power they have over a woman. Upon releasing the song in April, Eilish said, "This is about many different situations that we've all either witnessed or experienced. I hope this can inspire change. Try not to abuse your power." Fans speculated at the time that the song was about Eilish's ex-boyfriend, Brandon Quention Adams, based on what they saw between the two in her Apple TV+ documentary, Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, but Eilish denied that theory to Rolling Stone.  "[The documentary] was a microscopic, tiny, tiny little bit of that relationship," she said at the time, adding, "nobody knows about any of that, at all. I just wish people could just stop and see things and not have to say things all the time."

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