The late musician Prince's estate tweeted that President Trump's campaign used the song "Purple Rain" at its Minneapolis rally on Thursday despite a 2018 letter from the campaign's lawyers confirming that it would no longer use the artist's music.
The big picture: Musicians have spoken out against Trump using their music at campaign rallies for years, but this is an interesting case where the artist in question has actually produced a legal agreement on the matter.
- Most recently, a video tweeted by Trump that attacked former Vice President Joe Biden over the ongoing Ukraine controversy and used "Photograph" by Nickelback was removed after a copyright complaint from the band, per the Washington Post.
A non-exhaustive list of musicians that have spoken against Trump using their music:
- The Rolling Stones, whose "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is used as the capstone song to most Trump campaign events
- Neil Young
- R.E.M.
- Adele
- Elton John
- Queen
- George Harrison's estate
- Aerosmith's Steven Tyler
- Pharrell Williams
Read the letter, via the Prince estate's tweet:
President Trump played Prince’s “Purple Rain” tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music. The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs. pic.twitter.com/FuMUPzSWOe
— Prince (@prince) October 11, 2019
