Katy Perry criticizes the White House for using her music in a violent TikTok video
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Katy Perry has gotten political again, and not just in her choice of boyfriend.
The 41-year-old pop star, who has been dating former prime minister Justin Trudeau since last July, criticized the Trump Administration over the weekend for using one of her songs in a TikTok video about war with Iran.
The nine-second video, posted Thursday on the White House account, used part of his song Fireworks as a soundtrack to a series of fireworks – raw footage of what appears to be the latest US strike against Iran.
The explosion echoes the words “Boom, boom, boom.”
The accompanying message in the video: “Iran has been warned.”
Perry said on Saturday that he was “very shocked and angry to see his music being used in this way.”
“I wrote this song to be a song of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their dark times,” he wrote in X.
“To see a message of self-respect and upliftment armed with the destruction of a song and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for.”
The White House did not respond, but the audio has now been removed from the original post.
Perry may not encourage it, but legally, he has little control over how that song and others are used, having sold the publishing rights to five of his albums to Litmus Music for a reported US $225 million in 2023. A Youth's Dream album that includes Fireworks.
Universal Music Group continues to own the royalties – meaning it controls how the music is used, shared and monetized – and Universal's music was fully available on TikTok as part of a multi-year global licensing deal, which began in 2024.
Some artists are in denial
Perry is not the only artist to criticize the Trump administration for using their work in unauthorized ways.
In June, pop star Ariana Grande complained that the White House was using her music in a video about its immigration policies. “Please don't ever use my music in relation to this brutal, cruel, ugly nonsense,” he wrote on TikTok.
Bruce Springsteen also contradicted US President Donald Trump using his songs, returning to political rallies in 2016.
On Friday night, the New Jersey rocker found himself on the receiving end of one of Trump's jokes at the White House Correspondents' dinner – accused of spending more time on his show focusing on politics than acting.
Perry has supported American Democrats including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in their run for the White House against Trump.
And it's no secret that Trump is not a fan of Trudeau, telling reporters after his first face-to-face meeting with Mark Carney that he was glad to see the former prime minister away.
Perry accompanied Trudeau earlier this year to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he presented the virtues of soft power.
