Zara Larsson is the latest pop star to push back on the White House using her music in immigration enforcement content. The White House TikTok account posted a video featuring ICE agents arresting and deporting people, soundtracked by her 2024 hit“Midnight Sun”and captioned“Never ending deportations.”Larsson responded in her own TikTok, calling the video“so dehumanizing”and stressing that the people shown“are real people”just trying to build better lives.
She also didn’t mince words about who was responsible, calling them“f–king losers.”The pairing struck her as especially wrong given what the song actually means to her.“Midnight Sun”is about connection, to nature, to the universe, and to other people. It peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it her second-highest charting song.
This is the second time Larsson has objected to the White House using her catalog. Earlier this year,“Lush Life”was used in a Trump dancing video, prompting her to write“I f–king hate ICE.”Ariana Grande recently raised a similar objection after her song“Bye”appeared in an ICE video. With three major artists speaking out in a matter of months, the question of consent and music in political messaging is only getting louder. What do you think, should artists have a say in how their songs get used?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.