The Grammys this year were anti-ICE. One of the program's most notable moments this past Sunday was during Billie Eilish's acceptance speech for Song Of The Year, which she accepted alongside her brother and collaborator Finneas. “I don’t feel like I need to say anything but that no one is illegal on stolen land," Eilish said. You might think that given colonialism and imperialism and world history, this is pretty on-point general statement. Well, not everyone thinks so. People like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Kevin O'Leary, that really annoying guy from Shark Tank (and Marty Supreme), are not happy.
O'Leary went on Fox News on Tuesday (Feb. 3) to discuss the comment, but seems to have misunderstand the context of the pop star's comment. Instead of maybe connecting the dots between the horrific immigration politics that's happening right now and the United States' violent historical past, O'Leary took his time to talk about the benefits and rights indigenous people currently have. He said:
The only course I got 100% year after year in high school was history. It just came naturally to me. So I have a lot of background in issues like this. A lot of people don't realize in North America, in Canada and the United States, first nations' indigenous people hold a golden passport. They travel as if the 49th parallel didn't exist. For them, it doesn't. Many states and provinces have given them rights, particularly western states in the US. Water rights, for example. Water rights in Canada. These have been put into constitutions in Canada, state, and federal laws in the US, and they hold a lot of gravitas. They matter. So I feel sorry for celebrities that wander into this kind of thing without doing at least a basic AI search. She got torched. Do your homework first.
He also advocated for celebrities to keep their mouths shut when it comes to humanitarian or political issues, even referencing a Ricky Gervais quote. "As you rise up, whether you're a film star or a music star or whatever, shut your mouth and just entertain," O'Leary said.
Despite the criticism of Eilish, O'Leary was in good spirits about the incident: "I'm very optimistic that from this something good will happen. I'm not sure what happens to her. I say this to entertainers, half the people in politics that you piss off won't buy your music anymore. Don't be stupid about it, but hey, they don't listen."
Finneas took to social media, responding to a USA Today op-ed that the newspaper linked on Threads with the quote "Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, you are famous because of your talents as musicians, not because of your idiotic views on politics and President Trum." Finneas replied to USA Today, making a really good point: "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."
Actor Mark Ruffalo also stood up for Eilish, also writing on Threads:
Kevin O’Leary why don’t you STFU. It’s hilarious. You will go on any show and talk shit 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.
That same day, during the US Senate antitrust subcommittee‘s questioning of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Revenue & Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell, Senator Ted Cruz asked the execs if they’d seen the Grammys. "Are we right now on stolen land?" He continued, referencing Eilish's quote. "I have no idea of the history of this land — of where we're sitting today," Sarandos said after chuckling.
Cruz continued:
That speaks volumes that neither of you are willing to say, "Hell no, we're not on stolen land." I will say at the Grammys when you see an entertainer say, "Nobody is illegal while we're on stolen land." Then you see entertainers leap to their feet clapping so excitedly at the notion that America's fundamentally illegitimate. It starts to convey that the entertainment world is deeply corrupt. I will point out that same singer who promptly said "No one is illegal on stolen land" promptly went back to her $14 million mansion and somehow that's stolen land that she wasn't concerned about, just the United States Of America.
He then pivots back to Netflix being a left-wing company and talks a lot about CNN. He uses words like "objectivity" and "journalism," declaring that they have lost their meaning.
“Seeing a lot of very powerful old white men outraged about what my 24 year old sister said during her acceptance speech,” Finneas posted on Threads. “We can literally see your names in the Epstein files.”
“As far as I am concerned all of this attention and backlash is just part of the death rattle of the current ruling class,” he added via Instagram on Thursday. “You can only be punished for being on the right side of history in the short term.”
You check all of this out below and try to make any sense of it.
