The estate of the late Sinéad O’Connor has condemned the Donald J. Trump campaign for using her recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U” at rallies, BBC News reports. The statement cites O’Connor’s description of Trump as a “Biblical devil”—just one of her many denunciations of the then-president in her lifetime—and adds that the singer “would have been disgusted, hurt and insulted to have her work misrepresented in this way.”
The estate’s statement, made in tandem with O’Connor’s longtime label Chrysalis, calls for the Trump campaign immediattely to cease use of the song. “Throughout her life, it is well known that Sinéad O’Connor lived by a fierce moral code defined by honesty, kindness, fairness and decency towards her fellow human beings,” it reads. “It was with outrage therefore that we learned that Donald Trump has been using her iconic performance of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ at his political rallies. It is no exaggeration to say that Sinéad would have been disgusted, hurt and insulted to have her work misrepresented in this way by someone who she herself referred to as a ‘biblical devil.’ As the guardians of her legacy, we demand that Donald Trump and his associates desist from using her music immediately.”
Last month, Johnny Marr issued a similar condemnation after it emerged that Trump was using the Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” as warmup music. Many others to have tried to stop Trump using their music, including Rihanna, the Rolling Stones, and Steven Tyler, as well as the estates of Prince and David Bowie.
Read Sam Sodomsky’s Afterword “Sinéad O’Connor Was a Voice of Strength in the Darkness” and Marc Hogan’s investigation into artists’ efforts to block Trump from using their music:
Musicians Might Be Able to Finally Stop Trump From Using Their Songs