The Swedish pop group ABBA has reached out to the American presidential candidate Donald Trump, requesting that he stop playing their music at campaign events. The band’s record label, Universal Music, issued a statement on Thursday explaining that they had not granted permission for the use of their songs.
After several of ABBA’s most well-known tracks, including “Dancing Queen,” “Money, Money, Money,” and “The Winner Takes It All,” were played at a Trump rally in Minnesota last month, the band decided to take action. “Along with the members of ABBA, we have discovered that videos have been released in which ABBA’s music has been used at Trump events. We have therefore requested that this usage be removed immediately,” Universal Music stated in a press release.
This is not the first time that famous artists have faced issues with their music being used without permission at Trump’s political events. Recently, family members of soul and funk artist Isaac Hayes threatened Trump with legal action over the unauthorized use of his songs.
In July, a journalist from Swedish media outlet Svenska Dagbladet reported that “The Winner Takes It All” was played during a Trump campaign rally in Minnesota, where a ten-minute video of ABBA performing some of their most popular songs was projected on a large screen.
In March, the heirs of Irish singer Sinead O’Connor also appealed to Trump, asking him to stop using her iconic song “Nothing Compares 2 U” at campaign events. “It is not an exaggeration to say that Sinead would have been anxious, hurt, and offended by the misrepresentation of her work in this way by someone she herself called a ‘biblical devil,’” said a joint statement from O’Connor’s estate and record label at that time.
Over the years, well-known artists such as Tom Petty, Adele, R.E.M., and Celine Dion have similarly expressed complaints about their music being used without consent. Earlier this month, Trump also shared fake AI-generated images that falsely purported to show megastar Taylor Swift endorsing him on social media.