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And Finally Artist News Digital
Moby offers to DJ and U2 cancel album for Trump, Spotify attempts to hire Obama
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 10 January 2017
The question of exactly who will perform for Donald Trump on the evening of his inauguration as President of The United States Of America remains unanswered. Beyond 2010 ‘America’s Got Talent’ runner up Jackie Evancho, the line-up is looking a bit thin. And seemingly the acts being asked to help out are becoming ever more unlikely.
Earlier this month, one-time runner up in the UK edition of ‘X-Factor’ Rebecca Ferguson revealed that she had been approached (possibly the Trump team were going for a ‘2010 talent show losers’ theme). She accepted too, though on one condition, which appears not to have been met.
Ferguson said that she would “graciously accept” the invitation “if you allow me to sing ‘Strange Fruit’, a song that has huge historical importance, a song that was blacklisted in the United States for being too controversial, a song that speaks to all the disregarded and downtrodden black people in the United States [and] a song that is a reminder of how love is the only thing that will conquer all the hatred in this world”.
As I say, it appears that Team Trump didn’t think that was such a great idea. Then yesterday Moby revealed that he was the latest artist to be asked to perform for the new Prez, and like Ferguson, he also had conditions.
“I was just asked by a booking agent if I would consider DJing at one of the inaugural balls for Trump”, wrote Moby on Facebook. “Hahahahaha, wait, Hahahaha, really?”
Having picked himself up off the floor, he continued: “I guess I’d DJ at an inaugural ball if as payment Trump released his tax returns. Also I would probably play Public Enemy and Stockhausen remixes to entertain the Republicans. I’m still laughing. Hahahaha. So Trump what do you think, I DJ for you and you release your tax returns?”
Seems like a fair deal. I mean, at this stage, I think it’s been fairly well proven that there is no scandal that could convince Trump voters that he wasn’t the best person to win the election anyway. He already basically admitted that he doesn’t pay any tax during one of his debates with Hillary Clinton. I can only assume that the tax returns show that he’s nowhere near as wealthy or successful as he makes out, which is a problem for a man who thrives on bluster and bragging about such things.
Meanwhile, U2 guitarist ‘The’ Edge has said that the band have cancelled plans to release a new album this year, in light of Trump’s election win. Which is why they’re going to tour around the world performing 1987 album ‘The Joshua Tree’ instead.
“When we came off the last tour, the ‘Innocence And Experience’ indoor tour, we headed straight into finishing the second album of that set, ‘Songs of Experience’, which we were pretty much complete with after a couple of weeks of the final touches leading up to the end of the year”, he told Rolling Stone. “And then the election [happened] and suddenly the world changed”.
“We just went, ‘hold on a second – we’ve got to give ourselves a moment to think about this record and about how it relates to what’s going on in the world'”, he continued. “That’s because it was written mostly, I mean, 80% of it was started before 2016, but most of it was written in the early part of 2016, and now, as I think you’d agree, the world is a different place”.
Yeah, it is quite. I’m not sure how vital U2’s commentary on that fact is these days, but I guess we’ll see. One thing we do know for sure about 2017 is that Barack Obama is leaving the White House. A man who has no trouble getting musicians to come and party with him, the question now remains as to what he will do next.
If Obama wants to put those music connections to use, Spotify has a new job opening that may be of interest to him. After the outgoing president apparently joked to the boss of the Symposium Stockholm festival that “I’m still waiting for my job at Spotify … cos I know y’all loved my playlist”, the streaming service posted a job ad for a President Of Playlists to “provide world-class leadership to our playlist editors and supporting staff”.
Requirements for the job include “at least eight years experience running a highly-regarded nation”, “experience in programming playlists at a federal level”, and “a Nobel Peace Prize”.
If that sounds like you, apply here.
