Adele has issued a statement saying that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was not given permission to use her music during his campaign rallies, joining several other big-name acts to demand his camp stop using their music for promotional purposes. Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler and REM frontman Michael Stipe have also published statements telling the candidate’s campaign to stop using her music.
Trump had been using the British singer’s hit song Rolling In The Deep as well as her James Bond theme song Skyfall on the campaign trail, playing the songs at multiple rallies, according to the BBC.
“Adele has not given permission for her music to be used for any political campaigning,” a spokesman for the singer said to The Independent.
Other artists have not been so polite in their anti-Trump sentiment. REM’s Stipe said in a statement via bassist Mike Mills’ Twitter page, “Go f*** yourselves, the lot of you — you sad, attention-grabbing, power-hungry little men. Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign.”
Steven Tyler’s anti-Trump statement was moderately more polite than Stipe but still more severe than Adele’s, in that he sent it through his lawyers. In a cease-and-desist letter, they wrote that Trump, “Does not have our client’s permission to use Dream On” or any of Tyler’s other songs and that Trump’s use of his material, “Gives the false impression that he is connected with or endorses Mr. Trump’s presidential bid.” Tyler later penned an open letter about the copyright infringement, saying that his feelings had more to do with copyright protection than an overt hatred of the candidate.
But if Trump is looking for pop-star endorsements, he doesn’t need to look very far. Singer Azealia Banks recently made waves by publicly endorsing the candidate, although not for the reasons one typically gives a political endorsement; The singer thinks he is a perfect fit for the White House because he is, “Evil, like America.”
