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Billie Eilish navigates a dark and scary road in 'NDA' music video
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images

Billie Eilish navigates a dark and scary road in 'NDA' music video

Billie Eilish is three weeks away from dropping her sophomore studio album Happier Than Ever, but happy isn't necessarily the primary emotion that comes to mind when watching the music video for her latest single "NDA."

Directed by Eilish, the visual is dark—letting in only enough light to get a clear view of the 19-year-old as she trudges down an abandoned road—and almost as dark as the message conveyed in the first verse:

"Had to save my money for security /Got a stalker walkin' up and down the street / Says he's Satan and he'd like to meet / I bought a secret house when I was seventeen / Haven't had a party since I got the keys / Had a pretty boy over, but he couldn't stay / On his way out I made him sign an NDA, mm / Yeah, I made him sign an NDA / Once was good enough"

Once the chorus hits, a slew of cars recklessly race down the lanes Eilish is straddling. Overall, the song paints the picture of fame's underbelly and how Eilish has experienced it since "Ocean Eyes" made her a household name.

For Eilish's July/August Rolling Stone cover, her brother and producer, Finneas, explained the inspiration behind "NDA" as well as unreleased Happier Than Ever tracks "Billie Bossa Nova" and "Oxytocin."

"We have to do a lot of goofy bullsh—t when we go on tour, where we enter through freight elevators in hotels and stuff, so that paparazzi doesn’t follow us to our room," Finneas told writer Brittany Spanos. "And so we acted as if there was also a secret love affair going on in there of Billie being like, 'Nobody saw me in the lobby/Nobody saw me in your arms,' as if there was a mystery person in her life during all of that."

"NDA" is the fifth single from Happier Than Ever to drop, following in the wake of "Therefore I Am," "My Future," "Your Power" and "Lost Cause." Eilish additionally directed the videos for "Lost Cause," "Therefore I Am," and "Your Power," but she called the "NDA" video "one of my favorites that I've directed."

Happier Than Ever, arriving July 30, is the follow-up album to her 2019 Grammy-winning debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? The Los Angeles native has collected seven Grammys over the last two years, including back-to-back record of the year honors for "Bad Guy" and "Everything I Wanted."

Watch the "NDA" video below.

Megan Armstrong

Megan Armstrong (@megankarmstrong) is a writer whose work has appeared in places such as Billboard, GQ, Esquire, Bleacher Report, Uproxx, and others. Megan has also produced various podcasts and hosted a daily radio show at Mizzou. She grew up obsessed with sports — impressing adults by memorizing NFL statistics as a kindergartner — and grew into an obsession with music

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