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While festivalgoers drove to Coachella for night 1, Emilee Moore made sure to greet them in the best way. The singer-songwriter performed in front of a large, green, self-love-themed billboard in Palm Springs, California, that read, “I made this billboard to help you feel a little less alone.” Emilee performed her song “Hanging On” while harnessed to the front of the sign on top of a Buzzbox building.
At the far right of the billboard was a giant broken heart, which was created with countless fan-sent objects. Emilee asked her fan base to send her belongings that they were “hanging on” to from a former romantic partner: a piece of jewelry, a love note or anything else.
“There’s so much history to these objects. I have chills even thinking of it,” Emilee explained to Billboard on Friday, April 12. “I wanted to do the most epic, grand thing for this song, and Coachella was just around the corner. I thought, ‘Billboards are so related to Coachella, and that would be a perfect place to perform.’ Not only are we catching people who love music, but we also might reach some people who are escaping their heartbreak for the weekend and going to a festival to not think about an ex.”
Emilee went on to explain the meaning behind her single “Hanging On” and how she wanted to connect to fans who were going through a breakup.
“When I was going through my worst experience with heartbreak, I was always looking for a sign, and I would find meaning in literally everything I could because I just wanted to feel less alone and feel understood,” Emilee noted. “I really just wanted to make a literal sign where it’s like, ‘This is your sign. You’re not alone in those feelings.’”
Letting go of a past heartbreak is anything but easy, and Emilee wants listeners to “not push away the feelings because they’re too painful,” she told the outlet before detailing how she maintains an open conversation with her fans — social media.
“I guess the biggest thing for me is anytime I’m trying to think of what I want to do for a release or on my social platform, I take it back to my younger, heartbroken self, and I think about what I needed in those moments and I try to create that on my [social media] page,” Emilee added. “If you look on my Instagram, for example, you’ll see a lot of movie scenes, you’ll see heartbreak quotes and those are not random, but they’re very specific to my experience and heartbreak and when I would see those growing up, I would feel less alone.”