Don’t mess with Ms. Fenty.
President Trump might have to “stop the music” at his campaign rallies, at least where tracks by Rihanna are concerned.
The 30-year-old star’s performing rights company, Broadcast Music Inc., got her work removed from a blanket license agreement that had let Trump’s campaign play her tunes at its rallies.
Rihanna vowed to prevent the president from playing her music ever again after the campaign blasted her 2007 hit “Don’t Stop the Music” at his rally in Chattanooga, Tenn., last Sunday.
“This letter serves as notice that Rihanna’s musical works are excluded from the [political entities] Agreement, and any performance of Rihanna’s musical works by the Trump Campaign from this date forward is not authorized by BMI,” stated a Nov. 6 letter that The Los Angeles Times obtained on Friday.
Rihanna tweeted her objections to the Trump campaign’s use of her music on Nov. 4, in a reply to a reporter’s comment that “Don’t Stop the Music” was “blaring in Chattanooga as aides toss free Trump T-shirts into the crowd.”
“Not for much longer…me nor my people would ever be at or around one of those tragic rallies,” she declared.
Her lawyers subsequently sent a cease-and-desist letter to the White House.
“As you are or should be aware, Ms. Fenty has not provided her consent to Mr. Trump to use her music. Such use is therefore improper,” the letter said, according to Rolling Stone.
Rihanna spent the rest of the week tweeting support for Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidates for governor in Georgia and Florida, respectively. Both races remain undecided as paper ballot counting drags on.
Riri joins a long line of musicians who have fought against Trump’s use of their music, including Neil Young, R. E. M., Twisted Sister, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Pharrell Williams and the estates of Prince and opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti. Still, the tenor’s famed recording of “Nessun Dorma” was heard during his rally last Saturday in Montana.
Axl Rose objected to the Trump campaign’s use of Guns N’ Roses songs last Sunday.
“Unfortunately the Trump campaign is using loopholes in the various venues’ blanket performance licenses which were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters’ consent,” the singer tweeted.
