The estate of the late singer Prince has complained following a Donald Trump rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota where his team played the iconic song, Purple Rain, during the event as reported in the Rolling Stone.
Highlighting the copyright violation, the Prince Estate wrote on Twitter, “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.”
Estate requested stop
An agreement was reached by Trump’s re-election campaign and the Prince Estate in 2018 when the campaign’s legal representatives agreed that they would not use any Prince songs at Trump campaign events after the estate requested they stop doing so when Purple Rain was used at another pre-election rally. The estate shared a picture of the written agreement on Twitter.
The letter on Jones Day paper (the law firm that represented Trump’s campaign at the time) dated October 2018 acknowledged the request Prince’s estate made and that his campaign would abide by the request.
It reads: “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.
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Campaign team promised not to use songs
“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.”
The Prince Estate is not the first to ask Trump to stop using their music during his rallies. The requests date back to when he first began campaigning as a Republican presidential candidate. Neil Young, Tom Petty, Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones are among those who have demanded he desist from using their material. In addition, representatives from the band Queen say they want the hit, We Will Rock You removed from his latest campaign video. In the past, he has also used We Are The Champions against the band’s wishes.
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