Abba have demanded that Donald Trump stop using their music after the former US president played several of their songs and used footage of the group at a campaign rally.
The Republican presidential candidate played hits including Money, Money, Money, The Winner Takes It All and Dancing Queen at his event in St Cloud, Minnesota, the US state with the highest Swedish population, on Tuesday, the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported.
The campaign also showed film footage of Abba members on a big video screen at the hockey stadium alongside messages urging supports to donate.
Universal Music, the Swedish group’s record company, said they had not been asked for permission to use Abba music or videos by the Trump campaign and that footage from the event must be “immediately taken down and removed”.
A spokesperson said: “Together with the members of Abba, we have discovered that videos have been released where Abba’s music/videos has been used at Trump events, and we have therefore requested that such use be immediately taken down and removed.”
They added: “Universal Music Publishing AB and Polar Music International AB have not received any request, so no permission or licence has been given to Trump.”
One of the group’s members, Björn Ulvaeus, reportedly told the Swedish newswire TT by text message: “Our record company Universal makes sure it is taken down.”
Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Ulvaeus are the latest to take issue with their music being used by the Trump campaign.
Céline Dion spoke out against the use of My Heart Will Go On at a campaign rally in Montana, while Beyoncé blocked Trump from using her song Freedom, the main song for his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’s campaign, after it featured in a Trump campaign video.
Other parties have taken legal action or told Trump’s campaign this year to stop using their music, including Johnny Marr of the Smiths, the family of the late soul singer Isaac Hayes, and the estate of the late Sinead O’Connor, who adopted the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat after converting to Islam.
When Trump ran for president in 2020, Phil Collins and the estate of the late Tom Petty sent cease and desist letters to the Trump campaign.
“Tom wrote this song for the underdog, for the common man and for EVERYONE … We believe in America and we believe in democracy. But Donald Trump is not representing the noble ideals of either,” Petty’s estate said in a statement.
That same year, the Rolling Stones ironically restricted the Trump campaign from using their 1969 hit song, You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Other music greats have also previously bristled at Trump, including Bruce Springsteen and REM.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
