Usher, Mellencamp, Groban, Lauper Tell Politicians ‘Don’t Use Our Song’
On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, Usher, John Mellencamp, Heart, Josh Groban, Dan Reynolds, and Sheryl Crow banded together to tell politicians to stop using their songs during their campaigns. The unauthorized use of musicians’ songs seems to come up every election season, and this one is no exception.
During the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump walked onto the stage to “We Are the Champions” by Queen. The band did not approve the use of its song and tweeted a terse, “An unauthorised use at the Republican Convention against our wishes – Queen.”
To discourage future unauthorized use, the musicians created a “We Are the World” type song that demanded, “Don’t use our song.” They sang, “Thank you for not paying me. That’s a license you didn’t buy. If I wanted to sing and not get paid, I’d be on Spotify.”
They added, “Just to make it clearer, you can’t use this song either.” However, if politicians do want to use a song for free, the musicians suggested they use the sounds of a cat walking across the keyboard of an organ.
Last Week Tonight airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on HBO.
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