“Universal Music Publishing AB and Polar Music International AB have not received any request, so no permission or license has been granted to Trump,” it added.
ABBA’s hit songs like “The Winner Takes It All” and “Money, Money, Money” were played in July at a Trump rally in Minnesota, the U.S. state with the largest percentage of Swedish descendants.
And the Swedish icons aren’t the only musicians who are fed up with Trump using their stuff.
Foo Fighters, Céline Dion, Beyoncé, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, the estate of the late singer Sinéad O’Connor and the family of the late soul singer Isaac Hayes have previously asked Trump to stop playing their songs. Hayes’ family even filed a lawsuit against Trump.
Céline Dion in August condemned the use of Titanic tune “My Heart Will Go On” at one of the Republican contender’s rallies. Mocking the choice, she added, “… And really, THAT song?”
Rock band Foo Fighters said they did not allow Trump to play their song at an Arizona rally, and added they would donate any royalties from the unapproved use of their song to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign for president.
Trump’s team deleted a video in which the presidential candidate was seen walking off a plane while Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” was playing. The singer’s label contested the use of the song, which Harris has made a core part of her own campaign.
And that’s still not all.
Trump has irked number of other artists in his previous campaigns in 2016 and 2020, including Adele, Aerosmith and Guns N’ Roses.
Both Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Adele said they had not given their permission for the use of their songs at Republican rallies.
Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses argued the same in a series of outspoken tweets back in 2018, saying, “Trump campaign is using loopholes in the various venues’ blanket performance licenses which were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters’ consent.”
“Can u say ‘shitbags?!’” added the singer.
