--- title: Republican Convention: Queen Objects to Donald Trump Song description: The rock group Queen was not pleased about Donald Trump using their anthem We Are The Champions for his entrance music canonical: https://time.com/4412672/republican-convention-donald-trump-queen/ author: Tara John article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-19T16:18:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T05:54:53.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Queen Is Not Happy That Donald Trump Used Their Song og:description: But they probably can't do much about it og:url: https://time.com/4412672/republican-convention-donald-trump-queen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23cb5c441ace4085/69889c863c1639a79a45e171/donald-trump-queen-music-entrance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Republican National Convention in the United States og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Queen Is Not Happy That Donald Trump Used Their Song twitter:description: But they probably can't do much about it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23cb5c441ace4085/69889c863c1639a79a45e171/donald-trump-queen-music-entrance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Queen Is Not Happy That Donald Trump Used Their Song at the Republican Convention > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:54 AM UTCPublished: Jul 19, 2016 4:18 PM UTC  Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Sputnik/AP by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:54 AM UTCPublished: Jul 19, 2016 4:18 PM UTC The rock group Queen was not pleased about Donald Trump using their anthem _We Are The Champions_ for his entrance music at the [Republican National Convention](http://time.com/4412119/republican-convention-first-day-speakers/) in Cleveland on Monday night. Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, the group issued a terse message: “An unauthorised use at the Republican Convention against our wishes – Queen” This is the second time the band has objected to Trump using its music. In June, Queen guitarist Brian May [said on his blog](http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbjun16a.html#14) that Trump’s use of _We Are The Champions_ at a campaign event was “was neither sought nor given.” He also said it was against Queen’s policy for their music to be used in political campaigns. Despite the outrage, the convention likely didn’t infringe on any copyrights, and unauthorized use of music in political campaign events is commonplace. “What is clear is the use that they made last night is legal” said music and film lawyer Marc Jacobson, adding that venues can buy rights to play songs from music licensors like the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). What isn’t so clear is if there “is a notion of implied endorsement that they \[Queen\] somehow support Trump,” Jacobson said. “That’s the issue, does the use of the song during a political campaign imply an endorsement by the owners of the copyright of the song?” Jacobson said. “A lot of people think it does and a lot of people think it doesn’t, so it is up in the air and the law is not clear on the subject.” > [](https://twitter.com/seanspicer/status/755442824376676352) Twitter users came to their own conclusions of the matter, saying the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury— who was gay—is probably rolling in his grave over his song being played at a Republican Party convention. > [](https://twitter.com/igorvolsky/status/755226755984535552) > [](https://twitter.com/MatthewJElliot1/status/755358679533252608) > [](https://twitter.com/Martina/status/755372141776736257) In 2015, REM frontman Michael Stipe reacted with a little more fury to Trump using one of his band’s songs, telling the presumptive [Republican nominee](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/rem-singer-micheal-stipe-tells-donald-trump-to-go-fk-himself-for-using-bands-song-in-moronic-charade-10494277.html) to “Go f—k yourself.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4412672/republican-convention-donald-trump-queen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4412672/republican-convention-donald-trump-queen/"},"headline":"Queen Is Not Happy That Donald Trump Used Their Song at the Republican Convention","datePublished":"2016-07-19T16:18:18.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T05:54:53.000Z","description":"But they probably can't do much about it","url":"https://time.com/4412672/republican-convention-donald-trump-queen/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","celebrities","Music","Republican National Convention"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23cb5c441ace4085/69889c863c1639a79a45e171/donald-trump-queen-music-entrance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23cb5c441ace4085/69889c863c1639a79a45e171/donald-trump-queen-music-entrance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican National Convention in the United States","caption":"Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.","creditText":"Sputnik/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4412672/republican-convention-donald-trump-queen/","name":"Queen Is Not Happy That Donald Trump Used Their Song at the Republican Convention"}}]}] ```