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And Finally Artist News
Musicians rally against Trump as America goes to the polls
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 8 November 2016
So, the good old US of A goes to the polls today for a bizarrely close vote threatening to be a Brexit-style disaster. By this time tomorrow, Donald Trump could be the leader of the free world.
Actually, given that he wouldn’t be sworn in until January, that gives him plenty of time to get bored and decide he’d rather do something else. It’ll be America’s “maybe Brexit just won’t happen”. But anyway…
The world of music, on the whole, is not in favour of a President Trump outcome, which is why the Donald hasn’t been getting the stars up on stage to sing with him in the final stages of the election campaign. Or, as he would tell you, it’s because he doesn’t need any star power other than his own to get people to come to his rallies.
As both presidential candidates held events to gain last minute support yesterday, Trump said that when they appeared at a Hillary Clinton rally at the weekend, Jay-Z and Beyonce used language that was “so bad that many of the people left … using words that if I ever used those words, it would be the reinstitution of the electric chair – it’s true!”
He also offered a critique of their performance, in which he said: “And as they were… singing? Singing, right? Talking? Was it talking or singing? I don’t know”.
So, there you go, Trump’s view of rap remains in the ‘they’re just talking’ camp, and he also seems to think that Beyonce is a rapper. Maybe in the event he doesn’t win this election, he could start a YouTube channel doing comedy reviews of musicians. Because there are plenty more musical Clinton supporters to get his teeth into.
Trump also claimed yesterday that he gets “far bigger crowds” at his rallies than Beyonce and Jay-Z do at their concerts. Which quickly became another statement made by the Republican hopeful to be debunked.
Speaking of getting crowds, last night Madonna made a surprise appearance at Washington Square Park in New York to play an acoustic performance, and reiterated her support for Clinton, saying: “Vote with your heart, vote with your mind, vote with your spirit, vote with your soul. Save this country, please”.
Grimes recreated a famous 1964 advert, switching support for Lyndon Johnson to the more current Hillary Clinton. Chance The Rapper, meanwhile, took to the streets. After performing a free show in Chicago, he led thousands of audience members to early voting locations in order to cast their votes.
Lady Gaga didn’t lead a legion of fans to the polls, but she did make the location of her local polling booth more obvious with a striking voting outfit. She also tweeted her support for Clinton, telling fans: “We need to mobilise now, vote Hillary and stop this dangerous man from continuing to divide and wreck our democracy”.
And if you were in any doubt about the danger he presents, Aphex Twin took the nuclear war theme of Grimes’ aforementioned video to further extremes. Although he also pulled back and revealed that he was using nuclear attack as a metaphor for an upcoming performance at the Day For Night festival in Houston on 17 Dec.
Happy voting America. I’m going to hide under a blanket just in case.
