Queen's Brian May Does Not Approve of Donald Trump's Use of "We Are the Champions"

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Jun 8, 2016

In what some would consider some truly horrifying News of the World, Donald Trump celebrated winning the last wave of U.S. Republican primaries last night (June 7) by walking into a speech backed by Queen's iconic victory anthem, "We Are the Champions." Touble is, the nomination has yet to be fully clinched — not to mention the fact that Queen are kind of bummed about having their old tune dragged into Trump's campaign.

The musical moment happened last night at New York's Trump National Golf Club, where the presumptive nominee thanked primary voters who pushed him to the top in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, Montana and California. Shortly after Trump was accompanied by Queen's recording of "We Are the Champions," from 1977's News of the World, guitarist Brian May made an announcement through his personal webpage that he definitely didn't give Drumpf the thumbs up to blast the track.

"I've had an avalanche of complaints – some of which you can see in our 'Letters' page – about Donald Trump using our 'We Are The Champions' track as his 'theme' song on USA TV," May wrote.

May added that he was speaking for himself, not the rest of the surviving members of Queen, but further noted that the outfit have long distanced themselves from contributing music to political campaigns. Long story short, Trump shouldn't have used the late Freddie Mercury's rally cry on the epic anthem to boost his own cause.

"This is not an official Queen statement, but I can confirm that permission to use the track was neither sought nor given. We are taking advice on what steps we can take to ensure this use does not continue. Regardless of our views on Mr Trump's platform, it has always been against our policy to allow Queen music to be used as a political campaigning tool. Our music embodies our own dreams and beliefs, but it is for all who care to listen and enjoy."

Trump has been blasted for using songs without permission before. Last year, R.E.M. told the potential-POTUS to stop using their music in his "moronic charade of a campaign," while Neil Young had also been involved in a back-and-forth beef over Trump using his "Rockin' in the Free World." They later reconciled, with Young allowing Trump to use the tune, despite being at odds with his personal politics.
 

Pre-order the 40th anniversary edition of Queen's News of the World via MusicVaultz.

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