Jonny Greenwood has issued a statement denouncing the use of his music in ‘Melania’, the documentary about the First Lady of the United States. In a letter also signed by director Paul Thomas Anderson, the Radiohead guitarist claims that Universal Pictures has licensed the music from ‘The Invisible Thread’ (2017) without his permission and requests that it be withdrawn.
“We have been informed that a piece of music from ‘The Invisible Thread’ has been used in the documentary ‘Melania’,” says the statement issued by Greenwood’s representatives and reported by Variety. «Although Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright to the soundtrack, Universal did not consult him about this third-party use, which constitutes a breach of his agreement as a composer. As a result, Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have requested that he be removed from the documentary.
The film about Melania Trump, directed by Brett Ratner in his first project after the sexual harassment complaints he received, has sunk at the US box office in its second week, probably due to the disastrous criticism in the specialized press. ‘Melania’ aims to bring the public closer to the figure of the First Lady, but critics say that it doesn’t really mean anything and describe it as “slow”, “superficial” and “narcoleptic”. Others consider it Trumpist propaganda.
The music of ‘Melania’ had already given rise to bad talk, since a journalist criticized the use of ‘Amazing Grace’ by Aretha Franklin in the film, calling it “trolling”, since the song is historically associated with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and Barack Obama. Recently, Donald Trump spread a racist montage of Barack and Michelle Obama that he later deleted.
‘Melania’ also includes licensed music from Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Giorgio Moroder, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, Tears for Fears and Village People, while the original soundtrack was composed by Tony Neiman.
