The Met Gala 2025 has come and gone, leaving behind a trail of looks, memes, and absentees. Chief among the latter is Billie Eilish.
Since making her Met Gala debut in 2021, Billie Eilish has become a Met Gala favorite, with many anticipating what looks she'd wear to the lavish fundraiser. Eilish attended her first Met Gala as a co-chair and arrived at the Met steps transformed into Holiday Barbie. (The theme was "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion" and the dress code was “American Independence.”)
Since then, Eillish attended the event in 2022 and 2023, for a total of three consecutive years. While the singer notably skipped the Met Gala 2024, fans were manifesting a triumphant return this year, so when she was nowhere to be seen on the Met Gala 2025 red carpet, fans began to wonder the reason for her absence — and she has a good one.
So, why did Billie Eilish skip the Met Gala 2025? Well, as is usually the case with big celeb names, the reason is work. Since September of 2024, Eilish has been on the road with her Hit Me Hard and Soft world tour. The night of the Met Gala, Eilish was actually playing a show on the other side of the world at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where she wowed fans with a cover of Radiohead's “Creep.” (The star had performances in the same venue on May 4, May 5, and May 7.)
While it is possible for stars to schedule strategic pit stops in between tours to attend high-profile events — TBT to Taylor Swift flying from Tokyo to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl — at the moment that does not seem to even be an option for Eilish, who, like Coldplay, prioritizes sustainability for her tours.
Eilish has multiple partners on her current tour with the aim of “reducing the environmental footprint of touring," and some of the actions include encouraging fans to use public transport to arrive at the concert venues, with suggestions to take the train instead of flying if possible when travelling in from different cities to enjoy the show.
Despite Eilish's notable absence from the Met Gala 2025, that has not stopped the singer from receiving critiques for her “outfit.” On May 15, 2025, the singer took to her Instagram stories to shut down her Met Gala 2025 critics and once again clarify she was not at the event while calling out the now-customary AI edits of fake Met Gala looks.
“I'm seeing people talking about what I wore to this year's Met Gala being trash,” Eilish said in her stories while eating an ice cream. "I wasn't there. That’s AI. I had a show in Europe that night. Let me be. I wasn’t even there!”
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Editor's note: This story has been updated.
