Billie Eilish takes on the rich, one billionaire at a time

Billie Eilish brewed up a storm with her appearance at the WSJ Innovator Awards in October, where she called out the billionaires in the room while accepting her Music Innovator Award.

“Love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me. If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties,” the Birds Of A Feather singer had said as she called out, well, birds of a feather — the rich kind, including Mark Zuckerberg, who was also attending the event.

Ever since the occasion, it appears that Eilish is only warming up — the multiple time Grammy winner recently went after Elon Musk, the man who is close to graduating from his billionaire status to claim the world’s first trillionaire title.

Sharing a post from the activist organisation My Voice, My Choice on Instagram, which included examples about issues which Musk could easily solve with his hordes of wealth, the 23-year-old musician labelled the Tesla CEO a “f*****g pathetic p***y b***h coward”.

Going into battle

Why did Eilish wade into the waters to take up arms against the world’s billionaires anyway? The key lies in her recent philanthropic efforts.

The singer-songwriter recently donated $11.5 million out of her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour’s proceeds towards causes like food equity, climate justice, and combatting carbon pollution. She also performed for the benefit concert “Together for Palestine”, which aimed to raise money for the Arab nation amid its devastation from the war with Israel.

Millionaire vs. billionaire

Perhaps a point worthy of being considered is that Eilish herself is incredibly wealthy, with her net worth estimated to be $53 million, according to a 2020 consensus by Forbes — a fact ultimately landing flat in her tirade against those slightly richer than herself.

However Eilish’s privileged access to a public platform, and her putting that privilege to good use, is also another point to note — if not outright commend.

As The Guardian’s columnist Zoe Williams claimed in her opinion piece, titled Why the anger with Billie Eilish? Because it’s against the rules to say what we all know about billionaires, “You could give 100% of your money away, but if you said something and the world listened, you would still have the privilege of a platform.”

Billie Eilish’s holiday collection

For the fast approaching holiday season, Billie Eilish announced to her 124 million followers on Instagram that her holiday collection has “just dropped”.

The link in her Instagram stories would take you to her online store, where listed items include a $106 gold pendant, a $69 vegan leather belt, and a $75 upcycled mesh jersey tote.

Though all enviable and rather well presented — the website displays the collection amid a virtual snowfall — perhaps articles from Eilish’s holiday collection will become worth even more if she were to contribute the imminent proceeds from its sales towards additional important causes dedicated to social justice, which her billionaire nemeses do not seem to champion.