Adele, being neither American nor a lunatic, is reportedly not interested in contributing to the presidential campaigns of howling invertebrates Donald Trump and/or Mike Huckabee.
Both Trump and Huckabee have recently used Adele’s music in campaign efforts (so has Chris Christie, but no one really noticed). Huckabee’s recently-released parody video of Adele’s “Hello” was quickly muted following actions from Adele’s team—which was amazing—then, unfortunately, taken down entirely.
If you missed out, here are some clips via Fox News, where he was roundly ridiculed (starting at 0:36):
Huckabee told Fox that Adele was being “very petty” about the video, which was “shot on iPhones, for heaven’s sakes.”
Donald Trump, for his part, has recently been playing “Rolling in the Deep” at campaign rallies; a spokesman for Adele told BBC on Monday that “Adele has not given permission for her music to be used for any political campaigning.” According to Talking Points Memo, hours after this statement was published, Trump again played “Rolling in the Deep” at a Waterloo, Iowa rally on Monday.
According to BBC, the legal implications here are somewhat hazy:
Technically, US copyright laws give politicians carte blanche to use recorded music at their rallies – as long as the venue has a public performance licence issued through a songwriters’ association such as ASCAP or BMI (in the US) or PRS (in the UK).
However, there is some leeway for an artist to complain their image and reputation is being damaged by the repeated use of a song without their express permission.
My favorite iteration of this story, which is the best story—musicians rejecting the politicians who like their music—remains the time when R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe told Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, who played “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” at a rally, to “Go fuck 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.”
Something tells me Adele won’t go that far, but god, I hope she does.
