Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has drawn the ire of many musicians during his campaign, including Adele, The Rolling Stones and more. Even Neil Young begrudgingly allowed Trump to use “Rockin’ In The Free World,” but he had some particularly nasty things to say about Trump in the process. Now, you can add Queen to the list.
After celebrating victories on Tuesday night, Trump appeared with the music “We Are The Champions” playing. The band’s guitarist and founding member Brian May said that Trump did not have or ask for permission to use the song, and should not use it going forward. May posted a statement about the song usage on his website.
“I’ve had an avalanche of complaints – some of which you can see in our ‘Letters’ page – about Donald Trump using our ‘We Are The Champions’ track as his ‘theme’ song on USA TV. This is not an official Queen statement, but I can confirm that permission to use the track was neither sought nor given. We are taking advice on what steps we can take to ensure this use does not continue. Regardless of our views on Mr Trump’s platform, it has always been against our policy to allow Queen music to be used as a political campaigning tool. Our music embodies our own dreams and beliefs, but it is for all who care to listen and enjoy.”
The Letters page also links to May calling Trump “unsavoury,” and shows a screenshot of someone else’s Tweet that reads “Freddie Mercury sent a cease and desist from his grave.”
With the presidential race heating up, will Trump have any music to walk out to in the future?