ABBA is another music group taking a stand against Donald Trump. The band prohibits the use of their hits in the election campaign.
Once again, Donald Trump’s (78) team has played music by artists without permission during a campaign event. This time it was none other than the Swedish cult band ABBA.
“Together with the members of ABBA, we discovered that videos were published in which ABBA’s music/videos were used at Trump events,” a spokesperson for the Universal Music label explained, according to the British Guardian. They therefore requested that these be removed immediately. Universal and Polar Music did not receive any requests and therefore the former US president, who wants to move back into the White House, received neither permission nor a license to use the group’s songs.
For Trump it’s about “Money, Money, Money”
According to the report, several hits by Agnetha Fältskog (74), Anni-Frid Lyngstad (78), Benny Andersson (77) and Björn Ulvaeus (79) were played during a Trump campaign event in the US state of Minnesota – including “Dancing Queen”, “The Winner Takes It All” and “Money, Money, Money”. A large video screen was also used to call for donations while watching film footage of ABBA members.
Trump’s team seems to care little about licenses in general. There have been several such incidents in the past few weeks alone. Superstar Beyoncé (42) is said to have recently taken action against Trump’s election campaign for the unauthorized use of her song “Freedom”. Previously, the family of the late soul musician Isaac Hayes (1942-2008) and Céline Dion’s (56) social media team had spoken out, among others.
“Today, Céline Dion’s management team and her record label, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., became aware of the unauthorized use of the video, recording, musical performance and likeness of Céline Dion singing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at a Donald Trump and JD Vance campaign rally in Montana,” the statement said on Instagram on August 10. This was “in no way authorized” and Dion does not support such use.
