What do Radiohead, Rihanna, Aerosmith, ABBA, the Rolling Stones, Village People, Beyoncé, Kenny Loggins, and now Kesha have in common?
Aside from being musicians, all have rebuked Donald Trump or his associates for using their work without permission.
On Monday the 39-year-old pop star joined the unhappy club when she demanded the Trump administration stop using her 2011 dance-pop hit ‘Blow’ in a TikTok video extolling the “lethality” of America’s armed forces amid ongoing air strikes against Iran.
“Trying to make light of war is disgusting and inhuman. I absolutely do NOT approve of my music being used to promote violence of any kind,” Kesha wrote on Instagram and X.
“This show of blatant disregard for human life, and quite frankly this attack on all of our nervous systems, is the opposite of what I stand for.
“Also, don’t let this distract us from the fact that criminal predator Donald Trump appears in the [Epstein] Files over a million times.”
While Trump is a convicted felon, he has not been accused of or charged with any crimes in relation to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
She followed up with a snappier demand: “Stop using my music, perverts.”
The TikTok video posted by The White House featured a montage of U.S. warplanes screaming through the air and destroying naval targets set to Kesha’s ‘Blow’, with the caption: “Lethality 🔥🦅”.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has merely mocked Kesha’s objection, using what has become one of Trump’s characteristic phrases.
“All these ‘singers’ keep falling for this. This just gives us more attention and more view counts to our videos because people want to see what they’re bitching about.
“Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Six U.S. service members have been killed in the Iran attacks since the weekend, the U.S. military said.
Trump said he expects there to be additional casualties in a video posted to Truth Social Sunday. “Sadly, there will likely be more… before it ends, that’s the way it is. Likely be more,” he said.
Trump, his campaigns, and his administrations have a long history of using artists’ music without permission. Wikipedia even maintains an alphabetized list of “Musicians who oppose Donald Trump’s use of their music”, with 57 entries from ABBA to Yoann Lemoine (alias Woodkid).
Only last week, Radiohead demanded that ICE take down a video using a choral version of its song ‘Let Down’, telling the administration: “Go f*** yourselves.”
In October, folk legend Kenny Loggins objected to the use of his song ‘Danger Zone’ in a bizarre AI-created video in which Trump dumped brown liquid on No Kings protesters from a fighter jet while wearing a crown.
