Finneas Epically Defends Billie Eilish From 'Old White Men' Attacking Her Over Her Anti-ICE Grammys Speech

During Sunday's Grammy Awards telecast, several artists used their platform to promote social justice and human rights.

Among them was singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, who addressed atrocities committed by the administration of MAGA Republican President Donald Trump through Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security via her Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees.

Eilish quoted a phrase commonly used by Indigenous American activists for decades in defense of undocumented Indigenous immigrants from Central and South America:

"No one is illegal on stolen land."

In her acceptance speech, Eilish 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, and f*ck ICE."

You can see her comments here:

As expected, MAGA had a meltdown over being confronted with their own hypocrisy and began attacking Eilish.

@JaredHudson_AL/X

But Eilish's Grammy co-winner Finneas—for song of the year for "Wildflower"—had her back. The mononymous artist has won multiple Grammys and an Oscar for his songwriting, audio engineering, and music producing. Finneas is also Eilish's older brother.

He wrote on Threads:

"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."

Finneas later added a second response to the hate directed at his sister, sharing on Instagram :

"As far as I am concerned, all of this attention and backlash is just part of the death rattle of the current ruling class."

"You can only be punished for being on the right side of history in the short term."

@finneas/Instagram

Finneas also responded to an opinion piece in USA Today by conservative columnist Ingrid Jacques titled "PSA to celebs: Stick to performing, stay away from politics."

The right-wing journalist replayed the broken record that any tax paying United States citizen that plays sports, acts, or makes music isn't supposed to have political opinions or speak about social issues unless they're fellow Christian nationalists or White supremacists. Jacques only called out left leaning celebrities.

In response, Finneas posted in the comments:

"You just can’t do both. You can’t say it doesn’t matter what musicians or celebrities say or think but then talk about it for days. You’re out here making it matter. I’ll keep speaking up especially if it keeps bothering you."

People sent words of encouragement to the siblings.

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Finneas wasn't alone in having Eilish's back.

Actor Mark Ruffalo responded to "powerful old white" Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary's attacks on Eilish. Ruffalo is a respected longtime Indigenous rights activist.

O'Leary—who holds citizenship in Canada, Ireland, and UAE, but not the United States—gave the typical "shut up and sing" directive to Eilish.

Ruffalo reposted O'Leary's comment with Finneas' Threads post, then added:

"Kevin O’Leary why don’t you STFU. It’s hilarious."

"You will go on any show and talk sh*t about any number of things and smugly expect us to listen to you, but you will dig into a real artist that dwarfs anything you dream of doing for actually saying something that resonates with 100’s of millions of people the world over."

"It’s astounding the fantasy double standard Kevin O’Leary lives in. You played yourself well in Marty Supreme."

@markruffalo/Threads

White nationalism—which Trump's White House, Project 2025, and Stephen Miller's immigration policies centers—promotes the United States as a homeland for White people only, while all others are "foreigners" who can only be tolerated when they serve a White supremacist agenda.

Indigenous Americans serve as a reminder that brown people are indigenous to the Americas. The U.S. government made legally binding treaties about land rights with sovereign Indigenous nations, then stole the unceded treaty land, without due process, consent, or financial compensation, for mineral or timber rights, land grant universities, national or state parks, or military bases.

Descendants of invaders, colonizers, settlers, immigrants—like Trump, whose mother was born in Scotland, making him a first generation American—or actual immigrants—like Melania Trump—targeting brown people whose ancestors lived and migrated across the Americas for millennia as "illegal" is absurd.

The label of "illegal" is used to vilify and demonize undocumented immigrants whose crimes are misdemeanors, not felonies like the 34 that Trump committed.

Their accusers are occupying lands the United States' own laws, treaties, and courts recognize as being stolen—so who is there illegally?

That's why Indigenous Americans say:

"No one is illegal on stolen land."