“No application has been received by Universal Music Publishing AB and Polar Music International AB, and no permission or license has been granted to Trump.”
ABBA has demanded that Donald Trump stop using his songs during his campaign rallies.
The former US president used several ABBA hits, including “Money, Money, Money,” “The Winner Takes It All” and “Dancing Queen,” during his campaign rally last month (July 27) in St Cloud, Minnesota. Minnesota is the US state with the largest Swedish population.
In addition to playing the band’s hits, the campaign also took the time to project images of the ABBA members onto a giant screen at the venue where the rally was taking place. The images also contained messages urging Trump supporters to make donations.
According to Rolling Stone magazine news of the former president’s use of ABBA songs and images reached the group’s Björn Ulvaeus, who told Swedish news agency TT by text message that Universal Music – the band’s record company – “would make sure it is taken down.”
Universal Music shared that the Trump campaign had not asked permission to use ABBA’s music or videos and added that the images from the rally should be “removed and deleted immediately” (according to The Guardian ).
A spokesperson said: “Together with the members of Abba, we have discovered that videos have been posted where Abba music/videos have been used at Trump events, and have therefore requested that such use be removed immediately.”
They added: “No application has been received by Universal Music Publishing AB and Polar Music International AB, so no permission or license has been granted to Trump.”
The Swedish group is the latest of the musicians to ask the former president to stop using their music during his campaign events.
Beyoncé reportedly threatened the former president with legal action for using her song “Freedom” in a video on social media . That same song is now being used, with permission by Kamala Harris as official anthem of his presidential campaign .
Isaac Hayes’ heirs have also threatened to sue Trump for using “Hold On, I’m Coming,” Celine Dion said she did not support su uso de «My Heart Will Go On», Johnny Marr “banned” its use de «Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want» de The Smiths, y Neil Young , The Rolling Stones , Queen y The Animals have made similar objections in the past.
In other news, the Trump campaign recently argued who had the “license” to play Foo Fighters’ “My Hero” at a recent rally despite the band denying any authorization.
Trump too addressed the controversy surrounding its use of AI images of Taylor Swift “backing” her campaign last week stating: “I did not generate them.”
