Artists who object to Trump using their songs from Celine Dion and Isaac Hayes' estate: How it works

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Artists who object to Trump using their songs from Celine Dion and Isaac Hayes' estate: How it works

2024-08-16 11:54 Last Updated At：12:01

NEW YORK (AP) — Pop powerhouses, American classics, British artists and the estates of deceased legends — many musicians have objected to Donald Trump using their songs at campaign events.

After a video of Celine Dion performing her hit “My Heart Will Go On” was broadcast at a Trump campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana last weekend, the response from her team was swift.

“In no way is this use authorized, and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use,” a statement posted on social media read. "…And really, THAT song?”

Dion joins a long list of performers who've objected to Trump using their songs. Ahead of the 2020 election, that included Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Phil Collins, Pharrell, John Fogerty, Neil Young, Eddy Grant, Panic! at the Disco, R.E.M. and Guns N' Roses.

It also includes the estates of deceased performers, too, like Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty and Prince, as well as English acts from across the pond, like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Adele.

However, Trump has obtained the cosign from a few celebrity musicians, including Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, known for his patriotic anthem, “God Bless the USA.” Also heard at Trump's rally Thursday in Asheville, North Carolina: “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People.

Since the 2020 election, several artists have objected to the use of their music at Trump rallies. The Smiths' “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” played at a few Trump events, including a rally in Rapid City, South Dakota last September and in January of this year at a rally in Laconia, New Hampshire. On X, the Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr wrote, "Ahh…right…OK. I never in a million years would’ve thought this could come to pass. Consider this s—- shut right down right now.”

In 2022, David Porter, one of the songwriters behind Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming," tweeted “Hell to the NO!” after learning Trump used the song at an NRA rally. (In 2017, it should be pointed out, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave performed “America the Beautiful” at a pre-inauguration concert for Trump.)

Fast forward to Monday, when the son of the late soul singer Isaac Hayes, whose father co-wrote “Hold On, I’m Coming,” announced on social media that he and his family have threatened legal action against Trump “for 134 counts copyright infringement for the unauthorized use of the song ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ at campaign rallies from 2022-2024.”

Yes, however, artists rarely have full control over where, when, and how their music is played. Performing rights organizations that represent most recognizable recorded music — ASCAP and BMI — require political campaigns to obtain licenses that allow them to use large troves of songs from their vast catalogs.

That means a political campaign does not have to do individual negotiations over every song used.

If a political license is acquired, artists can object to its use, and the song is pulled from the license.

The issue, of course, is that not every campaign immediately honors those requests.

And it is important to note that these political licenses go beyond a public performance license, which allows venues to play copyrighted music.

Continuing with “Hold On, I'm Coming”: In 2008, Moore asked former President Barack Obama, then still a candidate, to stop using the song. He didn't want it to be considered an endorsement. They complied.

After Obama was elected president, Moore performed at the Creative Coalition’s Inaugural Ball alongside Sting and Elvis Costello.

They can send cease-and-desist letters, like Pharrell Williams did after his song "Happy” was played at a Trump rally in 2018. John Fogerty did the same in October 2020 over the Trump campaign's use of “Fortunate Son” by his band Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Few escalate to the point of suing, but it is not unheard of: Neil Young filed a lawsuit in August 2020 over the Trump campaign’s use of his music including “Rockin’ in the Free World." He later voluntarily dismissed the case “with prejudice," which means it cannot be brought again.

Eddy Grant sued Trump in September over the use of his 1980s hit “Electric Avenue” in a Trump campaign animated video that mocked Joe Biden.

To pumped-up Democrats, Harris was everything Biden was not in confronting Trump in debate

2024-09-11 23:09 Last Updated At：23:11

WASHINGTON (AP) — To many Democrats, Kamala Harris was everything Joe Biden was not in confronting Donald Trump on the debate stage: forceful, fleet of foot, relentless in going after her opponent.

In a pivot from Biden's debate meltdown in June, Democrats who gathered in bars, watch parties and other venues Tuesday night found lots to cheer in her drive to rattle the Republican.

In a race for the White House that surveys say is exceptionally close, with both sides looking for an edge, it was the Democrats who came away more exuberant after the nationally televised debate.

“She prosecuted Donald Trump tonight,” said Alina Taylor, 51, a high school special education teacher who joined hundreds of people on a football field of the historically Black Salem Baptist Church of Abington in a suburb of Philadelphia, where people watched on a 33-foot (10 meter) screen.

As for Trump, she said, “I was appalled" by his performance. “People were laughing at him because he wasn’t making very much sense.”

In Seattle, people gathered at Massive, a queer nightclub where scores watched the debate on a projector set up in front of the club’s large disco ball. The crowd laughed and cheered when Trump branded Harris a Marxist. More cheers when the debate moderator called out Trump's false claim that some states legalize the killing of babies after birth.

“He's getting smoked,” one said.

But in Brentwood, Tennessee, Sarah Frances Morris heard nothing at her watch party to shake her support of Trump.

“I think he beat her on the border," she said. “I think he also beat her on actually having plans and letting the American people know what those are. And I think that Kamala Harris likes to mention that she has plans for things, but she doesn’t actually ever elaborate on what those plans are.”

Morris conceded she was watching history being made, “because we have our first Black woman running for president.” But, she added, “I don’t think she delivered to get her to that place she needed to be.”

Harris supporter Dushant Puri, 19, a UC Berkeley student, said the vice president took command before the first words were spoken — when she crossed the stage to shake Trump's hand. “I thought that was pretty significant,” Puri said. "It was their first interaction, and I thought Harris was asserting herself.”

At the same watch party, fellow student Angel Aldaco, 21, said that, unlike Biden, Harris “came in with a plan and was more concise.”

Aldaco was struck by one of the night's oddest moments, when Trump “went on that rampage about eating pets.” That's when Trump endorsed a baseless conspiracy theory that immigrants were stealing and eating people’s dogs and cats. Harris was incredulous. “That was good,” the student said.

It's questionable how much viewers learned about what Harris would do as president or whether she won over independents or wavering Republicans. But for some Democrats, despondent if not panicked after Biden's fumbling debate performance, it was enough to see a Democratic candidate getting seriously under Trump's skin.

“He is pretty incapable when he is riled up,” said Ikenna Amilo, an accountant at a Democratic watch party in a small concert venue in downtown Portland, Maine.

“When you poke him, he is really reactive and he doesn’t show the temperament you want in a president, so I think Kamala has shown she’s doing a good job."

Annetta Clark, 50, a Harris supporter from Vallejo, California, watched at a party hosted by the Oakland Bay Area chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. To her, the second presidential debate was a mighty relief from the one in June.

“I couldn’t stomach the first one, if I’m being honest,” Clark said. “I tried to watch it and it was a little too much. This one I was able to enjoy.” On Trump’s performance: “It was almost like talking to a child with him.” Harris? “Fabulous job.”

Democrat Natasha Salas, 63, of Highland, Indiana, saw the debate from an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority watch party at a bistro in Markham, Illinois, and welcomed Harris' call to cool the political temperature — even as the vice president denounced Trump at every turn.

“We all want the same things, Democrats and Republicans," Salas said. "We are more alike than different. I want to see the country move forward and less divisiveness.”

Interest in the debate transcended national borders. From a shelter for migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, where dozens watched a translated version of the debates on a television, Rakan al Muhana, 40, an asylum-seeker from Gaza, became animated when the candidates discussed Israel and Palestine.

“We are running from the war," he said. "We are running from the Israeli bombs. He (Trump) doesn’t see us as human. My daughter, who is four months — for him, she’s a terrorist.”

Al Muhana has been on a four-month journey from Gaza to this border city, with his wife and four children. They left when both his mother and father were killed in a bombing.

Associated Press journalists Michael Rubinkam in Philadelphia; George Walker in Nashville; Robert Bukaty in Portland, Maine; Lindsey Wasson in Seattle; Godofredo Vasquez in Berkeley, California; and Gregory Bull in Tijuana, Mexico, contributed to this report.