Entertainment

Finneas hits back at ‘powerful old white men’ angry with Billie Eilish’s Grammys speech

David Benjamin
Oscar-winning songwriter Finneas has publicly defended his sister, Billie Eilish, following her politically-motivated Grammys speech. Billie, who scooped the Song of the Year for ‘Wildflower,’ alongside her older brother, called out ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) while accepting the award. (Picture: Getty Images)
During her speech, Billie said: ‘I feel so honored every time I get to be in this room. 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. And, yeah, it’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now, and I 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 the people matter.’ Before leaving the stage, the 24-year-old then said: ‘F*** ICE.’ (Picture: Getty Images)
Despite the positive reaction Billie’s speech received at the ceremony, which saw many stars clap and clearly agree with her message, the Wildflower singer sparked controversy online. This intense backlash was the catalyst for Finneas’ statement. Taking to Instagram Threads, he penned: ‘Seeing a lot of very powerful old white men outraged about what my 24-year-old sister said during her acceptance speech. We can literally see your names in the Epstein files.’ However, the 28-year-old did not share any names. (Picture: Getty Images)
At the awards, a whole host of celebrities stood with Billie and condemned the agency. While many famous faces wore ‘ICE OUT’ pins, from Justin and Hailey Bieber, Joni Mitchell, Wet Leg, Bon Iver, and Kehlani, others similarly used their winner’s speech to make a statement. Most notably, this included Bad Bunny, who won big at this year’s ceremony, taking home the coveted Album of the Year award. His all-Spanish-language album, Debí Tirar Mas Fotos, became the first Spanish-language work to win the prize. (Picture: Getty Images)
When accepting the award, Bad Bunny, who is from Puerto Rico, said: ‘Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans. Also, I will say to people, I know it’s tough to know not to hate on these days and I was thinking sometimes, we get contaminados [contaminated], I don’t know how to say that in English. The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them. We love our people. We love our family, and that’s the way to do it. With love. Don’t forget that please. Thank you.’ (Picture: Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Grammys executive producer Ben Winston weighed in on the subject of celebrities making politically charged speeches. In an interview with Rolling Stone following the awards, he firmly defended artists’ ‘freedom,’ and expressed the importance of spreading public awareness to important topics. Winston shared: ‘People have the freedom to say stuff. They’re musicians, they’re artists. These artists are creating the music, like, of course they’re gonna have something to say, it’s why they’re artists. They’re successful because they say something that means something to us as a listener.’ (Picture: Getty Images)
Winston then noted that he wasn’t ‘surprised’ at the specific political nature of this year’s Grammys — arguing that it would have been ‘bizarre’ if the artists didn’t highlight the current injustices in the US. It’s something which they would also likely have been slammed for, and labelled ‘out of touch’ or ‘tone deaf’. Winston explained: ‘It would be odd if they went up on stage and said, “I wanna thank the sound engineer, I wanna thank my agent, my publicist.” These are beautiful, creative people who feel things. Their job is to feel things and make you feel something.’ (Picture: Getty Images)

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *