Rufus Wainwright Calls Trump's Appropriation of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' a 'Blasphemy'
Rufus Wainwright's cover of Leonard Cohen's iconic "Hallelujah" is famous for all the right reasons, but the Trump campaign's use of the tune despite being told to "cease and desist" — only the latest example of such unauthorized use by the Trump camp — brought the wrong kind of attention to the track, with Wainwright denouncing the song's use as "a blasphemy," CNN reported.
The Trump campaign played Wainwright's cover of the song — originally recorded by Cohen in 1984, with covers by John Cale in 1991 and Jeff Buckley in 2004 — during a "bizarre" interlude at a town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania on Oct. 14. The rally went off the tracks when two attendees required medical attention and the Republican presidential candidate, rather than continuing with the event, ordered a favorite playlist to be put on the PA system.
"What followed was more than 30 minutes of Trump swaying on stage and occasionally doing his well-known two-handed dance to some of his favorite tunes," NBC News reported.
The Trump ticket has been called "weird" by Democratic opponents Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and one town hall attendee seemed to agree, telling NBC News, "This is the weirdest church service I have ever been to" — a reference, evidently, to the first track on the playlist, "Ave Maria."
Others gave a pass to the one-term holder of the Oval Office, who is vying to reclaim the White House in next month's election. "The concert was great," one Trump supporter told NBC News.
But the "concert" was also unauthorized, and this is not the first time a Trump event has featured Cohen's masterpiece — even though Cohen's estate has explicitly denied the Trump camp permission to use the work, NBC News noted.
"In 2020, 'Hallelujah' was played repeatedly during the last night of the Republican National Convention, and Cohen's estate said at the time that it had denied permission," NBC News recalled.
For his part, Wainwright — whose popular rendition of the Cohen song is viewed as authoritative — declared himself "mortified" at Trump's use of "Hallelujah." In a statement he released and then posted to Instagram, Wainwright said the song "has become an anthem dedicated to peace, love and acceptance of the truth."
"I've been supremely honored over the years to be connected with this ode to tolerance," Wainwright's statement went on to say. "Witnessing Trump and his supporters commune with this music last night was the height of blasphemy."
Wainwright's post ended with the claim, "The publishing company for the Leonard Cohen estate has sent the Trump campaign a cease and desist letter."
The singer captioned the Instagram post with the same text as the statement, but ended with: "And needless to say: I am all in for Kamala!"
The Harris campaign, meanwhile, took note of Trump's behavior at the town hall, with one campaign adviser declaring that voters watching events unfold at the town hall were "seeing a diminished Trump, one who rambles for hours at end, makes no sense, freezes for 30 minutes and forces people to listen to his Spotify playlist."
"It's bizarre," the adviser added, "and raises more and more concerns for voters."
Harris adopted the same line with a social media post that said of Trump, "Hope he's okay," before adding that Trump seemed "lost, confused and frozen on stage."
In a separate message, Harris contrasted Trump's refusal to release reports on his medical condition with her own medical report, asking whether Trump and his people might be "afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to lead America?"
"Questions about Biden's mental acuity, especially after his disastrous debate performance in June, ultimately forced the 81-year-old out of the race," NBC News recalled. "Democrats are now increasingly trying to flip that script on Trump, who would be the oldest person elected president if he wins in November."
"Wainwright and Cohen's estate are also not the first to have problems with the Trump campaign playing their music," CNN noted. "From Celine Dion and the Foo Fighters to Bruce Springsteen and Prince's estate, numerous artists over the years have objected to the use of their music by the Trump campaign."