Usher and other artists tell Republicans to ‘stop using our songs’ on John Oliver
HBO
John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight.”
“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver took on Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s history of using unauthorized music in campaigns on his Sunday night show — with the help of a few notable guests.
Oliver began the segment by pointing out the humor in Donald Trump’s song choices over the course of his campaign, including his unauthorized use of Queen’s “We Are the Champions” at last week’s Republican National Convention and a number of other instances of unlicensed song use in the past year.
At the end of the convention, as “a sarcastic amount of balloons” fell from the ceiling, Trump played the Rolling Stones’ 1969 classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” without the band’s permission — to which Oliver quipped, “No sh-t,” in a play on the song’s title.
Oliver criticized Trump’s use of REM’s “It’s the End of the World” as an introduction to his speech on the Iran nuclear agreement earlier this year. He then went on to demonstrate how unauthorized song usage has been a common trend for Republican politicians.
“Mike Huckabee pissed off Survivor by using ‘Eye of the Tiger,’” Oliver pointed out, before cutting to a news clip of Irish band The Dropkick Murphys tweeting “we literally hate you” at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for his use of their popular song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.”
The “Last Week Tonight” host also noted how Bruce Springsteen once protested Ronald Reagan’s use of his classic 1984 song “Born in the U.S.A.”
Then, in an unexpected and amusing turn, Oliver cut to a comical music video, featuring Usher, Sheryl Crowe, Michael Bolton, Cyndi Lauper, and a number of other notable artists protesting the Republican Party by singing, “We’re asking you right now, stop using our songs,” as the song’s chorus.
Watch the whole segment below.
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