Trump playing Hallelujah at town hall-turned-concert is 'blasphemy ...

Natalie Stechyson · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 15, 2024 12:13 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 15

Former U.S. president Donald Trump played Rufus Wainwright's cover of Hallelujah at a town hall-turned-impromptu concert Monday, which the musician has since called "the height of blasphemy."

In a statement posted to X Tuesday, Wainwright wrote that he "in no way" condoned Trump's use of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, which he described as "an anthem dedicated to peace, love and acceptance of the truth."

"Witnessing Trump and his supporters commune with this music last night was the height of blasphemy," Wainwright wrote.

The song ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen 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. Witnessing Trump and his supporters commune with this music last night was the… <a href="https://t.co/Qcf4Cbjqgy">pic.twitter.com/Qcf4Cbjqgy</a>

&mdash;@rufuswainwright

His statement added that the publishing company for Cohen's estate sent Trump a cease-and-desist order.

This comes after a town hall in the Philadelphia suburbs Monday was interrupted by two different medical emergencies and morphed into an impromptu concert. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, eventually opted to stop answering questions and instead bopped and swayed along to a playlist that included The Village People, Sinéad O'Connor, Elvis and Wainwright.

For nearly 40 entire minutes.

"Let's not do any more questions. Let's just listen to music. Let's make it into our music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?" Trump said.

"Nobody's leaving. What's going on? There's nobody leaving. Keep going," he said later.

He shimmied onstage to an eclectic playlist of songs that included O'Connor's cover of Nothing Compares 2 U by Prince, Wainwright's Hallelujah cover, Guns N' Roses' November Rain, and of course, the Village People's Y.M.C.A. As Billboard notes, several of the artists in Trump's playlist have previously asked him not to play their music at campaign stops.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump's national press secretary, published on the social media site X a photo of Trump from the side of the stage. "DJ TRUMP!" she wrote.

DJ TRUMP! ???????????? <a href="https://t.co/DvvSS1b9s1">pic.twitter.com/DvvSS1b9s1</a>

Hope he's okay. <a href="https://t.co/WGhGteFpjm">https://t.co/WGhGteFpjm</a>

But while Leavitt and other Trump supporters praised his "energy" at the "total lovefest" and said he gives the audience "hope," critics called the impromptu concert "weird" and "awkward," and questioned Trump's mental acuity.

On X, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris's official campaign account wrote, "Trump appears lost, confused, and frozen on stage as multiple songs play for 30+ minutes and the crowd pours out of the venue early."

"Hope he's OK," Democratic nominee Harris later wrote after sharing the post.

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At the town hall, Trump paused his question-and-answer session after about 30 minutes as a doctor in the room attended to the first person to have a medical issue. That's when he requested Ave Maria. An instrumental version followed.

After a second emergency minutes later halted the discussion moderated by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump said he actually meant Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti's version of the song. It was then played.

"Those two people who went down are patriots," Trump said. "We love them. And because of them, we ended up with some great music, right?"

Trump suggested they could wrap up the evening by enjoying some musical selections rather than hearing him answer more questions. He called for Y.M.C.A. and it blasted through the loudspeakers, the usual signal that Trump is done speaking and is ready to leave. But he remained on stage.

More music played — and for roughly 40 minutes, it didn't stop. Many of his supporters made their way to the exits, but some stayed through the end.

"That thing Trump did last night is not explainable and it is not small," Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz posted on X Tuesday morning.

"It shows that he's increasingly detached from reality. Everyone knows if Biden or Harris did that it would be media mayhem. He's not OK, and you can't ignore it anymore."

As the New York Times points out, Trump is known for his "improvisational detours." And at Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump "has been known to take out an iPad that is connected to the speaker system there and play DJ for his guests," the Times reported.

Since the 2020 election, several artists have objected to the use of their music at Trump rallies, including Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Phil Collins, Pharrell, John Fogerty, Neil Young, Eddy Grant, Panic! at the Disco, Guns N' Roses and R.E.M.

In March, the estate of Sinéad O'Connor asked Trump to stop playing her music at campaign rallies, saying the late singer considered the former U.S. president a "biblical devil."

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