Featured Image Credit: Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Image
Topics: US News, Music, Celebrity, Social Media, Kesha, Politics, TikTok, Sabrina Carpenter, Donald Trump
Ellie Kemp
Topics: US News, Music, Celebrity, Social Media, Kesha, Politics, TikTok, Sabrina Carpenter, Donald Trump
The White House's director of communications has responded after Kesha called out the institution for using her song 'Blow' to 'incite violence and threaten war.'
On February 10, the White House uploaded a video montage of US warplanes appearing to destroy naval targets set to the pop star's 2010 dance hit, captioned 'Lethality,' featuring a fire emoji and an eagle emoji.
Kesha took to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday (March 2) to address the use of her music in the video.
"It's come to my attention that The White House has used one of my songs on TikTok to incite violence and threaten war," she wrote.
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"Trying to make light of war is disgusting and inhumane. I absolutely do NOT approve of my music being used to promote violence of any kind.
"Love always trumps hate. please love yourself and each other in times like this," she continued.
"This show of blatant disregard for human life and quite frankly this attack on all of our nervous systems is the opposite of what I stand for."
She concluded: "Also, don’t let this distract us from the fact that criminal predator Donald Trump appears in the Files over a million times."
Kesha was referring to the Epstein files, and while the President was mentioned around 38,000 times in the documents, he has never been accused of wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and being mentioned in the files is not indicative of any wrongdoing.
Responding to Kesha on the same platform, White House director of communications Steven Cheung hit back: "All these 'singers' keep falling for this.
"This just gives us more attention and more view counts to our videos because people want to see what they’re b*****g about.
"Thank you for your attention to this matter."
Kesha isn't the only artist to fight back against the White House using their music, either.
'Juno' hitmaker Sabrina Carpenter called out the White House after the song - more specifically, its famous line 'have you ever tried this one?' - accompanied a video showing ICE chasing down and arresting people on the streets of Chicago.
"This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda," the singer said back in December.
Jess Glynn, the singer behind the viral 'nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday' hit 'Hold My Hand,' also slammed the White House after it used a soundbite over a video of passengers being loaded onto a deportation flight.
ABBA, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Elton John, the Foo Fighters, Olivia Rodrigo and more are among those who have called out Trump and the White House for using their music without permission during campaign elections, rallies and videos in the past.
According to Iranian state media, during the US and Israel’s missile strikes on Saturday (February 28), Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab was hit.
They claim 165 people were killed, mostly children, and 95 people have been injured.
State news agencies have distributed pictures that appear to show the school in ruins, as well as images of body bags, which it says are students who were killed.
Because of Iran’s oppressive regime, it is difficult for foreign journalists to verify the attack.
However, French news agency AFP said it had geolocated videos to the site showing damage to a building, which appeared to be a school.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told press on Monday (2 March): “The United States would not deliberately target a school.”
US Central Command said it was ‘looking into’ allegations of ‘civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations’.
Israel says it is not aware of any Israeli or US strikes on a school in Iran.