Photo Credit: Billie Eilish and Finneas for the Recording Academy (Instagram)
Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas is calling out the “powerful old white men” who criticized his sister’s ICE remarks during her Grammys speech.
Billie Eilish’s comments about “stolen land” and ICE during her Grammy Award acceptance speech last week have met with intense backlash online—and now her brother and collaborator Finneas is calling out the haters. But it’s not just the so-called “powerful old white men” who are outraged at Eilish’s remarks; the Native American tribe whose ancestral land includes the “bad guy” singer’s Los Angeles home has also weighed in on her speech.
“Seeing a lot of very powerful old white men outraged about what my 24 year old sister said during her acceptance speech,” wrote Finneas on Threads. “We can literally see your names in the Epstein files.”
Eilish and her brother took to the stage when she won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for “Wildflower” from her 2024 album Hit Me Hard and Soft. The pair were among the musicians and songwriters wearing pins that read “ICE Out” to protest the Department of Homeland Security’s intense immigration crackdown that resulted in multiple deaths in Minneapolis last month.
“As grateful as I feel, I honestly don’t feel like I need to say anything, but that no one is illegal on stolen land,” said Eilish during her acceptance speech. “And I just feel really hopeful in this room, and I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter, and people matter. And fuck ICE, is all I want to say.”
Among those who spoke out against Eilish’s remarks are Utah Senator Mike Lee, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt, and Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary. Notably, not all of these individuals appear in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice.
Schmitt said Eilish should forfeit her award “and probably her mansion, which I guess is on stolen land too.” DeSantis also suggested that if Eilish truly believed the land was stolen, she should give up her California home. Similarly, Lee added that “any white person who does a public ‘stolen land’ acknowledgement should immediately give his or her land to Native Americans. Otherwise, they don’t mean it.”
The Tongva tribe said that while it appreciated the broader message behind Eilish’s comments, it confirmed that the star’s $3 million property sits on what they consider their ancestral land. The group noted Eilish has not contacted them directly, emphasizing that public figures should name the specific tribes connected to a given territory to avoid vagueness in their acknowledgements.
“We do value the instance when public figures provide visibility to the true history of this country,” said a Tongva representative. “It is our hope that in future discussions, the tribe can explicitly be referenced to ensure the public understands that the greater Los Angeles Basin remains Gabrielino-Tongva territory.”
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