Beyoncé has banned Donald Trump from using her song “Freedom” after the track – the central song of the Kamala Harris campaign – was used for a Trump campaign video on social media.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung released the video, which shows Trump disembarking from a plane, with the support of Freedom. Rolling Stone and Billboard reported that Beyoncé’s record label and publishers had prohibited its use, and Cheung’s video has since been deleted from social media.
Beyoncé has not commented on the incident. She is rumored to be performing at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Thursday, but representatives for the singer and the Harris campaign have not commented. When asked about it on Wednesday, DNC Chairman Jamie Harrison did not confirm or deny an appearance, saying: “Every day she sings Freedom here – at least that’s what we hear over the intercom.”
The Harris-Walz campaign has made “Freedom” a central part of its campaign, debuting a new a cappella version in a campaign ad at the DNC that also features a speech by Oscar-nominated actor Jeffrey Wright. Harris has also used the song at other campaign events, and her supporters have been photographed wearing cowboy hats and “Cowboy Kamala” sashes, a nod to Beyoncé’s 2024 album “Cowboy Carter.”
The song “Freedom,” which appears on Beyoncé’s 2016 album “Lemonade,” has lyrics that don’t fit well with the Trump campaign, but fit well with Harris’ campaign. “I’ma walk, I’ma march on the regular / Painting white flags blue,” sings Beyoncé – a reference to her daughter Blue Ivy that could also pass as a campaign slogan for the Democrats.
Tim Walz, meanwhile, left the DNC stage to the strains of Rockin’ in the Free World, Neil Young’s scathingly ironic 1989 song that depicted an America plagued by homelessness and drug addiction. A campaign official told CNN that Young personally approved the use of the song, one of Walz’s favorites.
The use may be a half-veiled dig at Donald Trump, who himself frequently used the song at rallies between 2015 and 2020. Young has vocally opposed the use on several occasions, including in an open letter to Trump in 2020 that said, “Every time (…) one of my songs is played at one of your rallies, I hope you hear my voice. Remember, it is the voice of a tax-paying U.S. citizen who does not support you. Me.”
Young filed suit against Trump later that year, arguing in the documents that Young “could not allow his music to be used as the ‘theme song’ for a divisive, un-American campaign of ignorance and hate.” Young later voluntarily withdrew the suit.
Numerous other musicians, from Adele to the Rolling Stones, have spoken out against Trump’s use of their music. Earlier this month, the family of the late Isaac Hayes joined them in filing a lawsuit accusing Trump of “willfully and brazenly committing copyright infringement” by using the Sam and Dave hit “Hold on, I’m Comin’,” written by Hayes.
