Queen, Prince estate & Lynyrd Skynyrd criticises President Trump for using their music
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Queen, Prince estate & Lynyrd Skynyrd criticises President Trump for using their music

Trump also hit back by slamming Bruce Springsteen and others at his rally last week.

Queen has slammed U.S. President Donald Trump's organisation for using their music without permission.

The British legends objected to the use of We Will Rock You in an officially-sanctioned campaign clip.

The song was used in its entirety in a promotional tweet that contained footages of Trump speaking at different political rallies. The tweet had been viewed by 1.7 million times (dated on 14th Oct) just before it was deleted. The band's spokesperson said that they had "entered into processionals to call for non-use of a Queen song copyright by the Trump campaign."

Lynyrd Skynyrd had also responded in similar ways when an unofficial pro-Trump video was released. The video contained a fiction President Trump engaging in violence to the band's famous track, Free Bird. Lynyrd Skynyrd distanced themselves from the unsanctioned video where a fake Trump was on a shooting rampage in the 'Church of Fake News', killing rivals including ex-President Barack Obama as well as members of the press.

A spokesperson from the Trump campaign stated that the President himself had not seen the video, but it was shown at a rally in Miami that his son attended. Billboard reported that the clip showed Trump performing many violent acts like using a handgun and a knife towards reporters and news anchors from major news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Buzzfeed and more. Lynyrd Skynyrd said that the people behind the video had no permission to use their song.

In 2016, Queen also released a similar statement when Trump used their song, 'We Are the Champions' at the Republican National Convention. They strongly objected to having their music "associated with any mainstream or political debate in any country."

Last Thursday, President Trump hypocritically played 'Purple Rain' at his campaign rally in Minneapolis. In 2018, he had pledged to the Prince estate that he would not do so again in a letter. The Prince estate had strongly criticised the Trump campaign when they called him out in a statement. "The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs," the statement reads.

During his speech, he also criticised Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce and Jay-Z for their performances in support of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016.

He spoke to the crowd saying, "I didn't need Beyoncé and Jay-Z. I didn't need little Bruce Springsteen." With no facts on hand, Trump said that the Boss would "do about two songs [at the Clinton event], then leave … and everyone leaves with him. And [Clinton is] still speaking in front of the same lousy crowd. Craziest thing I've ever seen."