Usher, Cyndi Lauper tell politicians ‘Stop Using Our Songs'

 

John Oliver has a simple message on behalf of all musicians to political candidates — stop using their songs without permission.

Oliver blasted Donald Trump and the entire RNC in Sunday’s episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” also recruited a few musicians, like Usher, Cyndi Lauper and Sheryl Crow, to help him with a segment.

The artist took aim at candidates for using their songs without getting the go-ahead from the musicians first.

The idea of candidates using tracks without the artists’ or bands’ permission has turned into a trend during the 2016 Presidential race.

Brian May of Queen recently spoke out against Donald Trump’s use of the iconic hit “We Are The Champions” without their permission. After Trump blasted it at the gathering, May posted on Twitter saying the track was “An unauthorized use at the Republican Convention against our wishes.”

Trump did it again after using the Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” following a speech on the closing night of the convention.

Oliver made sure to point out both of these occasions, while also showing a clip of Trump using R.E.M.’s “It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”

He also highlighted the incident when the Dropkick Murphy’s told Scott Walker they “hated” him and to stop using their music after he tapped “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.”

Usher, Crow, Lauper, Heart, Michael Bolton, Josh Groban, John Mellencamp and Imagine Dragon’s singer Dan Reynolds all appeared in the music video on the show. They sang about possible lawsuits, considering candidates were basically stealing music.

“We didn’t write these songs to make your campaign stop seem cool,” Crow sings in the song.

“Don’t use our songs, ‘cause you’ll use it wrong,” Usher adds on. “That’s licensing, you have to call my publisher OK?”

“If I wanted to sing and not get paid, I’d be on Spotify!” Groban said.

The artists gave politicians a song they can use for free, which was just the sound an organ made when a cat walked across the keys.