Eilish wasn’t kidding about the composition of the crowd: billionaire Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was attendance, and an eyewitness told People that Zuck was visibly peeved, failing to clap alongside other wealthy honorees and audience members including Hailey Beiber, Spike Lee and George Lucas.

At the WSJ Innovator Awards in New York City on October 29, 2025, singer Billie Eilish made headlines by challenging wealthy attendees about their fortunes. Standing in front of some of the world's richest people,

"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?"

This is per People, reporting that Eilish was accepting an award at the Wall Street Journal ‘s Innovator Awards—which at least sounds like an awards show specifically created so that very rich business types could meet their pop culture heroes without having to add a celebrity wing on to their personal people zoos—when she made her pronouncement.

The “Birds of a Feather” singer was honored for her music at Wednesday night’s WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards, and used her acceptance speech as an opportunity to call out wealth inequality by asking billionaires the one question most of us plebs have for them.

Wealthy people should share their fortunes instead of hoarding them, Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Billie Eilish said. She made the remarks recently at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards, where she was honored for her contributions to music.

Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly left too stunned to speak when he was one of multiple billionaires to be called out by Billie Eilish during her recent acceptance speech.

Billie Eilish told a crowd of the wealthy elite to give away some of their fortunes, as she pledged to donate $11.5 million from her recent world tour. Accepting the 'Music Innovator Award' at the Wall Street Journal's Innovator Awards on Wednesday (29 October),

"Mark Zuckerberg's frosty reaction to Billie Eilish's billionaire critique sparks online frenzy. Find out why he took it personally.