RM Billie Eilish Urges Billionaires to Share Their Wealth: “No Hate, But Give Your Money Away, Shorties”
Billie Eilish is calling on the world’s richest individuals to step up their generosity.
While accepting a music honor at WSJ. Magazine’s 2025 Innovator Awards on Wednesday night, the Grammy- and Oscar-winning artist encouraged billionaires to do more to help solve global problems.
“We’re living in a time when the world feels really dark and difficult, and people need compassion and help more than ever—especially here in the U.S.,” Eilish said during her speech at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Among those in attendance were Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan, and “Star Wars” creator George Lucas. “If you have money, it would be great to use it for good causes—maybe help out people who actually need it.”
Before Eilish took the stage, late-night host Stephen Colbert announced that she plans to donate $11.5 million from her Hit Me Hard and Soft world tour to organizations focused on food equity, climate justice, and reducing carbon pollution.
Once onstage, the “Bad Guy” singer delivered her remarks with both warmth and blunt honesty. “Love you all—but let’s be real, a few folks in this room have a lot more money than I do,” she said, earning a mix of applause and laughter. “And if you’re a billionaire—why are you a billionaire? No hate, but give your money away, shorties.”
Eilish has long been involved in sustainability and social justice work through her Changemaker Program, collaborating with the nonprofit Reverb on projects such as the Music Decarbonization Project and the Music Climate Revolution. Other artists including Harry Styles and Dead & Company have participated as well.
Priscilla Chan also received recognition at the event, being named the Philanthropy of Science Innovator of the Year. A spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Brandi Hoffine Barr, noted that Zuckerberg and Chan have pledged to give away 99% of their Meta shares throughout their lifetimes, with $7 billion already distributed. As of now, Forbes estimates Zuckerberg’s net worth at about $224 billion.
Eilish’s comments come amid growing global inequality. A 2024 report from Oxfam International titled “Takers Not Makers” revealed that 204 new billionaires were added last year alone, and that billionaire wealth increased three times faster than in 2023. The report warned that at least five individuals could reach trillionaire status within the next decade and called for stronger wealth taxes, caps on executive pay, and living wage standards.
Calls for the ultra-wealthy to redistribute their fortunes have deep roots in U.S. history. In 1889, industrialist Andrew Carnegie’s essay “The Gospel of Wealth” argued that the rich have a moral duty to give away their wealth during their lifetimes to reduce inequality. Over a century later, Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett renewed that spirit by launching The Giving Pledge in 2010—an initiative encouraging billionaires to donate more than half their fortunes while alive or upon death.
However, progress has been slow. According to a recent report by the Institute for Policy Studies’ Charity Reform Initiative, only 256 billionaires worldwide have signed the pledge—110 of them in the U.S.—representing just 13% of the nation’s 876 billionaires. Of the 22 pledgers who have since passed away, only one gave away his entire fortune before death, while eight others met the goal of donating at least half.
Chuck Collins, one of the report’s authors, said Eilish’s remarks echo a growing awareness that economic systems are structured to benefit wealth owners over wage earners. He noted that while The Giving Pledge has created some peer pressure for billionaires to give, many signatories’ fortunes have only grown, requiring even greater action to meet their commitments.
“In the end, philanthropy cannot replace a fair tax system,” Collins said. “To address today’s extreme inequality, we’ll need to restore true progressivity—through wealth taxes and higher income taxes on the richest.”
