The estate of late music icon Prince has claimed Donald Trump broke an agreement by playing ‘Purple Rain’ at a campaign event on Thursday night.
For as long as the two have existed, music and politics have sort of gone hand in hand. While musicians use their craft to make a stand for their political beliefs, politicians often use songs as a means to get supporters on their side.
In the case of US President Donald Trump though, he’s run into a bit of trouble in this regard. In fact, last year saw the likes of Axl Rose, Rihanna, and even the estate of Prince hitting out at the divisive politician, requesting that he refrain from playing their music at his events.
In fact, the estate of Prince was so incensed by Trump’s decision to play ‘Purple Rain’ at an event in the artist’s hometown of Minneapolis that longtime associate Jeremiah Freed shared a Tweet stating that “The Prince Estate has never given permission to President Trump or the White House to use Prince’s songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately.”
As it turns out though, Trump is back up to his old tricks, and Prince’s estate is furious.
President Trump played Prince’s “Purple Rain” tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music. The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs. pic.twitter.com/FuMUPzSWOe
— Prince (@prince) October 11, 2019
Taking to Twitter this week, Prince’s estate shared a message noting that Donald Trump once again played ‘Purple Rain’ at a campaign event in Minneapolis, “despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music.”
While reaffirming that “the Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs,” the Tweet backed up this claim by sharing a legal document signed by lawyers in charge of Trump’s campaign which saw a signed agreement to no longer use the late artist’s music at these campaign events.
“Your letter requests, on behalf of the Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson (“Prince”), that the Campaign refrain from using Prince’s ‘Purple Rain,’ or any other Prince music, in connection with Campaign rallies or other Campaign events,” the signed letter explained.
“Without admitting liability, and to avoid any future dispute, we write to confirm that the Campaign will not use Prince’s music in connection with its activities going forward.”
At this stage, those in charge of Donald Trump’s campaign have remained silent in regards to the broken promise.
However, if you’re wondering why Trump continues to use songs by artists who have requested their music not be played at such events, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose gave us an insight into the matter last year when he noted that “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.”
Check out ‘Purple Rain’ by Prince:
