Billie Eilish isn’t afraid to be the bad guy in a room full of billionaires.
On Oct. 29, the 23-year-old singer announced during the Wall Street Journal Magazine 2025 Innovator Awards that she would be donating $11.5 million of earnings from her “Hit Me Hard and Soft” tour to various organizations dedicated to food equity, climate justice, reducing carbon pollution, and combating the climate crisis.
The announcement came from late-night television host Stephen Colbert as he presented Eilish with the “Music Innovator of the Year” award.
“That’s wonderful,” Colbert said. “Billie, on behalf of humans, thank you very much.”
The nine-time Grammy Award winner is wrapping up her nearly 14-month tour in November. According to Touring Data, the tour generated a reported box office revenue of around $46.5 million.
As she accepted the award, Eilish addressed the billionaires in the room, calling on them to donate more of their money.
“Love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me,” Eilish said. “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?”
“No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties,” she added.
One audience member was Mark Zuckerberg, who is worth more $200 billion according to Forbes.
Zuckerberg is married to another WSJ honoree, Dr. Priscilla Chan, who received the WSJ’s “Philanthropy of Science Innovator of the Year” award for her work in the couple’s joint Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. A WSJ profile of Chan published before the event said that the couple has pledged to give away 99% of their Meta (previously FaceBook) shares over the course of their lifetimes.
Other billionaire attendees included supermodel Karlie Kloss, designer Tory Burch, and beauty brand owner Hailey Bieber, who Eilish was photographed talking to at the event.
