ABBA Tells Trump to Stop Using Its Songs

Swedish pop group ABBA has told former President Donald Trump to stop using its songs at his rallies on the campaign trail.

"We, together with the members of [ABBA], have discovered that videos have been released where Abba's music has been used at Trump's events and have requested that such use be immediately taken down and removed," ABBA's record company told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet on Thursday.

"Universal Music Publishing AB and Polar Music International AB have not received any request, so no permission or license has been granted to Trump," it added.

According to Politico, hit ABBA songs "Money, Money, Money" and "The Winner Takes It All" were played at a Trump rally in July in Minnesota, which has the largest percentage of Swedish descendants of all the U.S. states.

The members of ABBA aren't the only artists who have demanded that Trump stop appropriating their music.

Celine Dion, Beyonce, the Foo Fighters, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, and the estate of late singer Sinead O'Connor have asked the former president to quit using their tunes. The family of the late soul singer Isaac Hayes has also asked the GOP presidential nominee to cease and desist, even going so far as to file a lawsuit against Trump.

Earlier this month, Dion reportedly blasted the Trump campaign's unauthorized use of "Titanic" song "My Heart Will Go On," even as she mocked the Republican's use of it, saying, "... And really, THAT song?"

Saying they did not permit Trump to play one of their songs at an Arizona rally, the Foo Fighters added that they would be donating royalties from the unsanctioned use of their music to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat candidate for president.

The Trump camp took down a video in which the 45th president was seen walking off a plane to the tune of Beyonce's "Freedom" after her label opposed his use of the song. Harris has since incorporated the song into her campaign with Beyonce's blessing.

Trump reportedly has a history of needling musicians, including Aerosmith, Adele, and Guns N' Roses, during his runs for the White House in 2016 and 2020.

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and Adele have both said they did not consent to the use of their songs at Trump's campaign rallies.

In a string of tweets in 2018, Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses said the Trump campaign was "using loopholes in the various venues' blanket performance licenses which were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters' consent."

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