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First, it was Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood who asked that his music be removed from the controversial Melania Trump documentary. But now, the film’s producer has opened up about the other musicians who said no to their music featuring in the film.
Released in January by Amazon MGM Studios, Melania follows the US first lady in the 20 days leading up to husband Donald’s second inauguration.
The film saw polarised reactions between critic reviews and paying audience members, while musician Greenwood and director Paul Thomas Anderson made headlines when they condemned the use of the score of their 2017 film Phantom Thread on the soundtrack.
In a new interview, producer Marc Beckman has shared that the team behind Melania had tried to include music from a number of acts who said no. “There was music that we tried to get, but sadly, there [was] politics to it,” he told Variety.
Beckman said that there was a “beautiful song” by Guns N’ Roses that they’d wanted to use, but that the group had disagreed over whether to grant permission and couldn’t go ahead without universal agreement.
“One of the guys – I don’t want to name, it’s not fair – said, ‘You got it. Go.’ And the other one was basically like, ‘There’s just no way,’” he recalled. “So Guns N’ Roses was definitely a disappointment for us; we all have a lot of respect for Guns N’ Roses.”
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Axl Rose and Slash of Guns N’ Roses, whose music ended up not featuring in the ‘Melania’ documentary (Getty Images)
Beckman revealed that they’d also tried to use a track by Grace Jones, whom he said he had a “tremendous amount of respect for”.
“She apparently couldn’t get over the political hurdle, notwithstanding the fact that the film is not a political film. So that was disappointing, too. It’s disappointing when people put politics so far ahead, and that happened a little bit with the film, for sure.”
The Prince estate was also said to have blocked the use of one of the late singer’s songs at the last minute, on the lawyer’s grounds that “Prince would never want his song associated with Donald Trump.”
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“We’re like, ‘But it’s not a Donald Trump film! He comes into the movie once in a while, but this is all about Melania. It’s not political.’ And that guy blocked it. It’s so ridiculous,” Beckman said.
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Music by Grace Jones was blocked, as the producer said the artist could not get over ‘the political hurdle’ (Getty)
The issue of the Melania soundtrack was raised in February by Greenwood and Anderson, when they asked for their music to be removed from the film. Greenwood said that the score had been licensed by its owner, Universal, but that they hadn’t consulted him, which was in breach of his composer agreement.