Billie Eilish has always been one to speak her mind. While accepting the Wall Street Journal’s Innovator Award for Music last night, she closed out her speech with a message to the rich — presumably in part for Meta head Mark Zuckerberg, in the room at the time, who, according to Forbes, is the third-richest person in the world.
“Love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me,” she said slyly, making some cheekily awkward faces before concluding and taking her leave of the stage: “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties.”
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The 23-year-old had been using her speech to express hope that people would be using their wealth for the greater good. “We’re in a time right now where the world is really, really bad and really dark and people need empathy and help more than, kind of, ever, especially in our country,” Eilish said, per People. “I’d say if you have money, it would be great to use it for good things, maybe give it to some people that need it.”
According to People, an eyewitness claims Zuckerberg did not clap following Eilish’s message. He was in attendance with his wife Priscilla Chan, who was also receiving an award. Others in attendance included Hailey Bieber, whom Eilish was photographed alongside later in the evening.
Eilish was introduced by Stephen Colbert, who announced on Eilish’s behalf that she would be donating $11.5 million from her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour to “support organizations, projects and voices dedicated to food equity, climate justice, reducing carbon pollution and combating the climate crisis.” She detailed to the Wall Street Journal how she tries to reduce harm to the environment during her tours, from providing plant-based food to biodegradable confetti to more sustainably-made merch to inviting attendees to bring their own water bottles.
“Billie Eilish has a net worth of about $50M so it's a bit about 20% of her net worth [sic],” one Redditor commented, receiving five thousand upvotes at time of this writing. “Imagine if Larry Ellison, [second] richest man in world and worth billions, did even 10%. We would be able to eradicate world hunger.”
