Camilla Jessen
A documentary about Melania Trump faced unexpected hurdles before its release.
Marc Beckman, who worked on the film Melania, told Variety that Prince’s estate declined permission for one of the late artist’s songs to appear in the project.
The documentary, released last month, follows the first lady during the 20 days before Donald Trump began his second term. It is expected to stream on Prime Video later this year.
Critical response was largely negative, with the film holding an 11 percent critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. Audience scores, however, were significantly higher at 99 percent.
Licensing hurdles
Beckman said clearing music for the production proved complicated, as some performers did not want their work connected to a Trump-related project.
He told Variety that Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood requested his music be removed. Prince’s catalogue presented a separate challenge.
“I think Prince sold the rights to Primary Wave. And the Primary Wave guys were like, ‘Oh yeah, we’d be happy to go ahead and give you guys the rights to this Prince song’,” Beckman said.
“But in that instance, it’s my understanding that the deal was such that the estate now needs to approve what Primary Wave does with it. Literally we were ready to go, and and this lawyer that manages the estate was like, ‘Prince would never want his song associated with Donald Trump.’”
Estate holds firm
According to Beckman, the production team argued that the film centered on Melania Trump and that the former president appeared only briefly. Despite that, he said the estate did not reconsider.
“It’s so ridiculous,” Beckman said, describing the decision.
UNILAD reported that it contacted Primary Wave, which owns a share of Prince’s music rights, for comment.
The disagreement comes amid wider disputes between musicians and the Trump administration over how songs are used.
Singer Sabrina Carpenter recently criticised officials after her track “Juno” was included in a video showing immigration enforcement arrests.
“This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda,” she wrote on Twitter.
The White House responded that it would not apologise for “deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country”.
Sources: Variety, UNILAD.
