Donald Trump seems hell-bent on (illegally) using Woodkid's song 'Run Boy Run'. However, proving once more that the presidential nominee has no idea what he's doing, the track is an LGBT+ anthem that clashes with MAGA stances.
ADVERTISEMENTFrench singer-songwriter and video director Woodkid has already asked for Donald Trump to stop using one of his songs during campaign rallies. But the message, first sent last December, seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
Now, Woodkid – real name Yoann Lemoine – is once again calling out the Republican presidential nominee to stop using his track ‘Run Boy Run’ for his campaign video, which features excerpts from the former US president’s speeches to the tune of the single from his 2013 album 'The Golden Age'.
"Once again, I never authorized the use of my music for this video," he posted on X today.
He also added that he’s surprised that the conservative candidate should use this particular song, as “Run Boy Run is a LGBT+ anthem wrote by me, a proud LGBT+ musician. How ironic.”
Woodkid ends his post calling for his label to react and not be complicit.
‘Run Boy Run’ is a rousing anthem dealing with transformation and the pursuit of personal freedom, about a misfit who must break free from rigid societal norms. Woodkid has previously stated that this song is inspired by his experiences as a gay man.
The song has been used (legally) in several ads, films and TV shows over the years, including Divergent, The Maze Runner, Doctor Who and How To Get Away With Murder. However, it’s not the first time that it has been misused. In 2016, Woodkid spoke out against those playing his song during a “Manif pour tous” demonstration, led by opponents of gay marriage in France.
"It's the Middle Ages aspect of my music that must have appealed to them," he quipped at the time.
Woodkid is not the first musician to have objected to Trump's (mis)use of their songs for campaigning purposes.
The list at this point is endless. Everyone from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Tom Petty, via Neil Young, The Rolling Stones and Adele has called out Trump for using their songs without permission.
Other cases include Bruce Springsteen objecting in 2016 to Trump blasting 'Born in the U.S.A.' as a patriotic anthem, when it’s actually a scathing indictment of the treatment of Vietnam vets (oh the irony once more); Rihanna demanding that Trump stop playing 'Don’t Stop the Music' after the song played at a 2018 rally; and R.E.M. being outraged that their tracks 'Losing My Religion', 'Everybody Hurts' and 'It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)' were used at rallies.
“Please know that we do not condone the use of our music by this fraud and con man,” said R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills, while frontman Michael Stipe succinctly ordered: "Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign.”
In 2020, Leonard Cohen’s estate issued a statement criticizing Trump's unauthorized use of Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ at the Republican National Convention – having specifically rejected permission for its use. The estate, rather brilliantly, added that they would have only realistically considered approving Cohen's song ‘You Want It Darker’.
Earlier this year, Sinéad O'Connor’s estate asked Trump to stop using her hit 1990 song ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ at his political rallies, saying: "Throughout her life, it is well known that Sinéad O'Connor lived by a fierce moral code defined by honesty, kindness, fairness, and decency towards her fellow human beings. It was with outrage therefore that we learned that Donald Trump has been using her iconic performance of Nothing Compares 2 U at his political rallies.”
Frustratingly, many US politicians have some legal leeway when it comes to this practice of using songs as they please, leading recording artists to despair.
ADVERTISEMENTIndeed, US politicians don't always need permission from artists, as campaigns can buy licensing packages from music rights organisations, which gives them legal access to millions of songs for political rallies.
Artists do, however, have the right to remove their music from that list.
Maybe Trump can keep mining Kid Rock's back catalogue from now on, and stop contaminating great songs in a bid to liven up his flagging campaign trail.
