This happened to Eminem recently, but the list goes on: musicians rarely want to be associated with conservative views.
On Monday, Eminem’s record company ordered Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the Republican presidential candidates, to stop singing the American rapper’s songs during his campaign events. As for Eminem and Ramaswami, this is not the first time that singers have become annoyed or threatened with legal action because their songs are used during campaign rallies in politics without their permission. Such episodes involved, in particular, Boris Johnson, John McCain and, above all, former US President Donald Trump.
Most of these stories have one thing in common: the politicians are right-wing or centre-right, but the musicians are not. In fact, while bands and singers often tolerate leftist or centre-left parties using their songs for campaign purposes, they are almost always reluctant, if not outright opposed, to the possibility that they are somehow serving propaganda among conservatives. The reasons are intuitive: artists and musicians tend to belong to progressive circles and strive to remain connected to the political issues they share. A one-of-a-kind song that precedes or follows a speech by a politician who, for example, would like to deny the rights of minorities, can be bad publicity for the singer and risk alienating part of his audience. On the other hand, it is more difficult for a musician to believe that he is harmed by association with a progressive party, unless the musician in question is clearly right-wing and has a conservative audience (but there are fewer and less well-known).
In most cases, disputes were resolved by a simple notice and suspension of the use of the songs. However, in some cases it turned out differently.
In recent weeks, Ramaswami has been participating in the first campaign caucuses of the GOP primary, and during an event in Iowa, he accidentally started singing “Lose Yourself”, one of Eminem’s most famous songs. Ramaswami, 38, the son of Indian immigrants and raised in the Cincinnati area, says he’s a big fan of Eminem and recently explained that “Lose Yourself” is “the soundtrack of his life,” in a way comparing his story to that of Eminem. rapper. However, the record company said it would henceforth treat any performance of Eminem’s songs during his campaign as a “violation” and eventually sue him.
In 2014, Eminem and his record company also sued the centre-right National Party of New Zealand for copyright infringement because then Prime Minister John Key used the same song at the event: the party stopped using the song, but three years later the court still ordered him to pay the singer an amount equivalent to approximately 330 thousand euros as compensation for the damage caused.
Whether the politicians are fans of these singers or not, incidents like this have been happening for some time, but they have become more frequent, especially in the last twenty years, and not just in the US.
– Read also: The song oddly topped the US music charts.
In 1984, Bruce Springsteen denied Ronald Reagan permission to use the famous phrase “Born in the USA” in his campaign ahead of the presidential election. In 2008, the record label ABBA challenged the use of the song “Take a Chance on Me” in the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The following year, then French President Nicolas Sarkozy was forced to pay the group MGMT around €30,000 for using the song “Kids” without permission during an event (this amount was later donated to an association for the protection of artists’ rights).
In 2011, the Dandy Warhols protested the use of the conservative Theresa May, who would become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in five years, of her slogan “Bohemian like you”. In subsequent years, similar cases concerned his successors. When Boris Johnson took the stage at a Tory Party event to Friendly Fires in 2021, the indie rock band He wrote sarcastically stated on Twitter that if the prime minister needed “something to make him feel relieved, he could use the sounds of a crowded food bank”, a reference to an old and criticized statement by conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg.
In 2022, Prime Minister Liz Truss, who took her place as party leader and prime minister, angered the M People for using her 1993 song “Moving On Up”, which she pointed out with some sarcasm to the BBC at the time. remained a secret. the top 20 charts for longer than Truss has led.
Ed Sheeran was not at all pleased that his song “Small Bump” (an expression used to refer to the barely visible belly of a pregnant woman) was used by anti-abortion rights activists in Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum. Dr. Dre, a longtime associate of Eminem, managed to convince far-right Republican MP Marjorie Taylor Green to stop using his songs in promotional videos.
In 2012, when Cyndi Lauper discovered that a US Democratic Party committee had used her song “True Colors” for an ad against Republican Mitt Romney, she was disappointed and tweeted that she “didn’t want the song to be used for that purpose.” also because “Mr. Romney manages to discredit himself by not using my work.” The ad has been removed from YouTube.
In 2004, English DJ Fatboy Slim became very angry when his famous song “Right Here, Right Now” was used during the conference of the British Labor Party, which supported the military attack on Iraq, of which he was a vocal critic. Elton John, one of the most famous singers of all time, has stated that he doesn’t want his music to have anything to do with politics.
In Italy, a few years ago, Vasco Rossi also complained about the former Senator of the 5 Star Movement, Gianluigi Paragone, who used his famous “C’è chi dice no” in a video in which he expressed his disagreement with the DP government’s agreement. -M5S.
And then there’s Trump, with a very long list of singers, artists, and musicians who, during the 2016-2020 presidential campaign, asked his election committee to stop using their songs to disassociate himself from his political positions. Phil Collins called for “In the Air Tonight” not to be used again, and Brian May said that Trump never received permission to use Queen’s “We are the Champions”, Adele’s rep said the same thing compared to Queen’s songs. famous English singer. These artists include Aerosmith, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Rolling Stones, REM, Guns N’ Roses and Panic!, among others. at the disco.
During the 2020 election campaign, he lost to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, including Neil Young suing the Trump campaign for using “Rockin’ in the Free World” and “Devil’s Sidewalk” during a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, he dropped the charges a few months later (it is not clear if the case was resolved out of court). In 2018 when Rihanna found his songs being played during the Trump interim campaign, tweeted that it would not last “for long…” adding that “neither I nor my people would ever come close to one of these terrible rallies.”
Even Luciano Pavarotti’s widow Nicoletta Mantovani and the tenor’s three eldest daughters protested that his version of Giacomo Puccini’s “Nessun dorma” was not performed at Trump events. In 2020, the family of the singer-songwriter Tom Pettywho died three years earlier, said Trump was not allowed to use his “I won’t back down” always during the Tulsa rally, which is a bit like heirs Prince from his songs. In 2000, Tom Petty also threatened to sue future US President George W. Bush, arguing that the use of one of his songs at a political event seemed to suggest that the singer was supporting him. Sting also asked Bush not to use his songs.
Dear Trump Campaign!
Damn it. You are not invited. Stop playing my song.
No thanks,
Brandon Urie, Panic! In Disco and Company.— Brandon Urie (@brendonurie) June 24, 2020
In 2008, despite Foo Fighters’ request to stop using it, Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s election committee continued to play their “My Hero”, claiming they had the right to do so. Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin made the same claim about Hart’s song “Barracuda”, which was her nickname in high school.
In the United States, politicians are not always required to obtain express permission from artists to use their songs. In fact, in some cases, their election committee or their staff buy special licenses from copyright brokerages such as BMI and ASCAP, thus gaining access to more than 20 million songs that can also be used in political events. Artists have the right to remove their songs from these lists, as did the Rolling Stones and Eminem, for example, also thinking about it: the problem is that often the mechanisms that allow these songs to be used are not clear, and sometimes the artists are not fully aware of it.
In 2020, more than 50 singers, musicians and artists, including Green Day, Pearl Jam, Elton John, Lorde, Sia and Blondie, signed an open letter complaining about the conditions imposed by these companies and alleging that the exploitation of their music in political purposes can “confuse and disappoint their fans and even jeopardize their long-term earnings” and that “first of all, it’s wrong.” artist or songwriter,” the statement said.
– Read also: Can a singer stop a politician from using one of his songs?
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