Katy Perry has criticized the White House for using her hit song “Fireworks” in a video showing a US military attack in Iran.
On July 23, the White House’s official TikTok page posted a video using the 2010 song as a backtrack, with the lyrics “Boom Boom Boom” and the caption “Iran has been warned” over footage of a military attack.
On July 25, the pop star condemned the use of “Fireworks” in X, writing that she was “extremely appalled and angry” and clarified that she “didn’t approve of this, wasn’t asked to do this, and will never forgive it.”
“I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for those going through their darkest personal moments. To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized into a soundtrack of destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for,” she wrote. “My music is about bringing people together, not celebrating war.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump’s deputy Kaylan Dole responded to Perry’s post by sharing a clip of his 2012 song “Part of Me,” which features Perry at military boot camp. “Is this you?” the door wrote.
On July 23, U.S. Central Command confirmed to X that it launched a new offensive against Iran in what it called “13 consecutive nights of strikes aimed at holding Iran accountable and reducing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ threat to civilian shipping.”
President Donald Trump continues to defend his administration’s ongoing military campaign against Iran after the House voted 214-208 to end the war and the Senate backed him by a 49-47 vote.
“We want to end this and we want to do it right, but we have to do what we have to do,” Trump said at an event at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. “We can’t give them what they want, which is nuclear weapons.”
Katy Perry joins pop stars in condemning White House’s use of song
Perry joins a growing list of musicians who have criticized the White House over the use of their songs on social media.
Ariana Grande made the comments on a TikTok video posted by the White House on June 9 that depicts federal agents arresting and handcuffing people, featuring her 2024 song “Bye,” Reuters and the Guardian report.
“Please never use my music in connection with this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense,” she wrote. The audio and Grande’s comments were later deleted.
White House Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said in a June 12 statement to USA TODAY: “Let me say this in closing: what is truly barbaric, inhumane and heinous are criminal illegal aliens who have harmed and killed innocent American citizens.”
Ke$ha, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter also accused the White House of using their songs in various videos without their permission.
After President Trump posted a video of his late father, Frank Sinatra, singing his hit song “My Way” on Truth Social on April 18, Nancy Sinatra responded to X the next day, saying, “This is blasphemy.”
