(RepublicanPress.org) – Irish singer, songwriter, and activist Sinéad O’Connor stirred up more than her share of controversy during her nearly 40-year musical career. For instance, she outraged Catholics when she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II during a 1992 “Saturday Night Live” performance. She died of natural causes in July 2023, but her estate still struggles to protect what it views as her legacy, most recently by sending a request to former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
On March 4, The Associated Press reported that O’Connor’s estate and longtime label, Chrysalis Records, issued a statement demanding that Donald Trump immediately “desist from using her music.” The former president had reportedly played her biggest hit, “Nothing Compares 2 U,” at a recent Maryland campaign event.
Sinead O'Connor's estate asks Donald Trump to stop playing her music at rallies https://t.co/OKp7OmGLgR
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 4, 2024
The statement advised that O’Connor “lived by a fierce moral code” characterized by “fairness,” “kindness,” “honesty,” and “decency towards her fellow human beings.” Therefore, her estate was outraged when it discovered the former president had used her iconic performance of Prince’s song “at his political rallies.”
O’Connor’s estate explained that she “would have been disgusted, hurt, and insulted” to learn that her work had been “misrepresented” by an individual she openly referred to as “a Biblical devil.” The statement concluded by noting that “as the guardians of [O’Connor’s] legacy,” it demanded Trump and his associates stop playing her music.
BBC News reported that this wasn’t the first instance of a musician, or their estate, asking Trump to stop using their songs at campaign events. For instance, The Rolling Stones sent cease and desist letters to Trump after learning he played the group’s iconic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at a 2016 campaign rally. Rhianna and Adele also complained about Trump’s unauthorized use of their music.
In 2018, Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s family expressed outrage at Trump’s use of Nessun Dorma, one of the singer’s most famous arias, at multiple campaign events. His widow, Nicoletta Mantovani Pavarotti, told a local newspaper that the “world vision proposed” by Trump wasn’t compatible with the “values of brotherhood and solidarity” promoted by her late husband.
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