Beyoncé has blocked Donald Trump from using her song Freedom, after the track – the central song for the Kamala Harris campaign – was used for a Trump campaign video on social media.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung posted the video showing Trump walking off a plane, backed by Freedom. Rolling Stone and Billboard reported that Beyoncé’s record label and publisher moved to block the use, and Cheung’s video has now been deleted from social media.
Beyoncé has not commented on the incident. She is rumoured 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 chair Jamie Harrison did not confirm or deny an appearance, saying: “Every day, she’s in here singing Freedom – at least we hear it across the intercom.”
The Harris-Walz team has made Freedom a core part of its campaign, unveiling a new a cappella version in a campaign ad at the DNC, which also features a speech from Oscar-nominated actor Jeffrey Wright. Harris has also used the song at other campaigning events, and her supporters have been pictured wearing cowboy hats and “Cowboy Kamala” sashes, referencing Beyoncé’s 2024 album Cowboy Carter.
Freedom, included on Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade, has lyrics that do not chime well with the Trump campaign, but are a natural fit for Harris’s. “I’ma walk, I’ma march on the regular / Painting white flags blue”, Beyoncé sings – a reference to her daughter Blue Ivy which could double up as a Democrat campaign slogan.
Tim Walz meanwhile left the stage at the DNC to the sound of Rockin’ in the Free World, Neil Young’s savagely ironic 1989 track that painted a US riven by homelessness and drug addiction. A campaign official told CNN that Young had personally approved the use of the song, a favourite of Walz’s.
The use is perhaps a semi-veiled dig at Donald Trump, who frequently used the song himself at rallies between 2015 and 2020. Young vociferously opposed the use on numerous occasions, including in an open letter to Trump in 2020 that read: “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 US citizen who does not support you. Me.”
Young filed a lawsuit against Trump later that year, with documents stating Young “cannot allow his music to be used as a ‘theme song’ for a divisive, un-American campaign of ignorance and hate”. Young later voluntarily dismissed the case.
Numerous other musicians, from Adele to the Rolling Stones, have opposed Trump’s use of their music. Earlier this month they were joined by the family of the late Isaac Hayes, who filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump “wilfully and brazenly engaged in copyright infringement” by using the Hayes-penned Sam and Dave hit Hold on, I’m Comin’.
