Our President just doesn’t get it does he? Not that he ever did in the first place. Queen don’t want any politicians to use their music. This is the second time the British legends have blocked Donald Trump from using their music. In 2016 they filed suit when Trump used ‘We Are The Champions’ as a walkout track for the Republican convention. And now, Queen have blocked Trump from using ‘We Will Rock You.’ The first half of the double track.
On Oct 9th, Trump used the song in a tweet clip from one of his ego boosting rallies. Queen instantly filed a copyright complaint with Twitter. The video was removed promptly. According to Buzzfeed, Queen are doubling down and have entered a process to disallow any use of their music from any political candidate or party. Which I feel is the right thing to do for them. They aren’t a political band. If it was Living Colour I would understand why they might let a candidate like Joe Biden use their music and not Trump. But Queen don’t have an overtly forward view on politics in their music. A 2016 statement from guitarist Brian May’s statement reads as follows: ‘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 does not continue. Regardless on our views on Mr. Trumps platform, it has always been against our policy to allow Queen music to be used as a political campaigning tool…I will make sure we take what steps we can to disassociate from Mr. Trumps unsavory campaign.’
Of course, this isn’t the only time that a Republican running for president got shut down from the artist while using their music. In 1984 Ronald Regan got into some hot water when he used Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A..’ Springsteen came out with his political views and forced the discontinuation of use of the track. Just recently, Nickleback also shut Trump down for using their song ‘Photograph’ to mock Joe Biden on twitter. All I gotta say is that if Nickleback is blocking and removing their material from your posts, that’s a whole new low.
