Trust Trump and his team to lack the self-awareness when it comes to cultural touchstones...
ADVERTISEMENTAn odd choice.
Perhaps a bizarrely appropriate one.
Still, an unauthorised pick.
Céline Dion's team has released a statement on behalf of the Canadian icon, stating that Donald Trump had no right to use her song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ during a presidential campaign rally in Montana.
The use of her Oscar-winning song from the 1997 film Titanic was "in no way" authorised and Dion “does not endorse this or any similar use.”
The statement read: "Today, Celine Dion's management team and her record label, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc, became aware of the unauthorised usage of the video, recording, musical performance, and likeness of Celine Dion singing 'My Heart Will Go On' at a Donald Trump / JD Vance campaign rally in Montana. In no way is this use authorised, and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use.”
The statement concluded: "... And really, THAT song?"
Once again, Trump and his campaign team seem to have little to no self-awarenesswhen it comes to... well, culture.
Following the unauthorised use of French artist Woodkid’s LGBTQ+ anthem last week – the irony of which was not lost on many – Trump has now used a song that was played in a film about a sinking ship...
While it may seem a tad premature to label Trump’s presidential campaign as a sinking ship, the lack of awareness on show can be categorised as an epic tragedy.
This comes after Dion made headlines last month with her return to live singing when she closed the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics amid her struggle with stiff person syndrome (SPS). She sang Edith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’amour” at the opening ceremony - her first concert performance since revealing that she is suffering from “a rare, progressive syndrome that affects the nervous system, specifically the brain and spinal cord,” according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Dion is far from the first artist to have objected to Trump's (mis)use of their songs for campaigning purposes.
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.
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’.
ADVERTISEMENTEarlier 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.”
Legally speaking, US politicians have some legal leeway when it comes to this practice of using songs as they please, leading recording artists to despair.
Indeed, 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.
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