A Campaign-Song Nightmare

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Speaker 3 Just a quick note. This episode contains some cursing that you may not usually hear on this show.

Speaker 3 Tell me if this analogy is right because I was like, I was thinking

Speaker 3 the metaphor is like if you bought a dress that you loved and then you wore this dress to a party and then

Speaker 3 something unexpectedly terrible happened at the party. You weirdly would hate the dress.
Like it's not the dress's fault, but you would kind of be, you would, like, be angry at the dress.

Speaker 3 I was wondering if

Speaker 3 that's the reaction people had to the song.

Speaker 4 I mean, that's a pretty, like, that would be a pretty

Speaker 4 fair or unfair.

Speaker 4 Well, I think it's a little dumb

Speaker 4 to be mad at a dress. Right.

Speaker 4 Like a small boat

Speaker 4 on the ocean.

Speaker 3 This is Radio Atlantic. I'm Hannah Rosen.

Speaker 3 Every four years, the music world and the political world interact, and weird things happen.

Speaker 3 This election year, there's been the DMC roll call featuring Lil John. There's also the rumor that Beyonce was going to show up at the DMC, which she never did.

Speaker 3 Kamala Harris's brat, Swifty's for Kamala, and then on the Republican side, a less cute kind of relationship with the music world.

Speaker 5 The federal judge in Atlanta has ruled today that former President Donald Trump and his campaign needs to stop using the song, Hold On, I'm Coming.

Speaker 4 The fan.

Speaker 7 Swedish pop group ABBA is the latest musical group to object to the Trump campaign.

Speaker 4 Singer Celine Dion is criticizing former President Donald Trump's campaign for playing her music at political rallies without her permission.

Speaker 4 Dion says the campaign has played My Heart Will Go On at these events since last year. She called out the announcement.

Speaker 3 Even when a musician agrees with a politician, like is wholeheartedly down with the mission of the campaign, there can be dangers.

Speaker 3 One musician has gone on this journey in the most crushing and public kind of way. Her name is Rachel Platten.

Speaker 3 When did the term fight song occur to you? Do you even remember?

Speaker 4 Yeah, no, I do. I do.
It was very clear.

Speaker 4 I was at a college football game. I'm kidding.
Just get out of here. I'm fucking with you.

Speaker 3 Totally. I was like, this is not going to happen.
Wouldn't it be amazing?

Speaker 4 I was like, I was at Ohio State.

Speaker 4 Exactly. This literal.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Rachel is the artist behind Fight Song.

Speaker 4 It was a little bit more wordy when I wrote it. It was like, this is my fight song.
Time to take back my life song. Time to prove I'm Laurie.

Speaker 3 Anyway, Fight Song was also the song that, for better or worse, became synonymous with Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Let's stand up for the future that we want together.

Speaker 3 Thank you all so much.

Speaker 3 This is my first song.

Speaker 3 Fight Song played and played and played over and over and over again at 10 million campaign rallies until my friend and political reporter Olivia Newsy tweeted that summer, quote, I would rather be strapped to a chair and forced to listen to Tiny Dancer on a loop for nine hours than hear Fight Song one more time.

Speaker 3 But here's the first heartbreak.

Speaker 3 Initially, Rachel didn't even want the Hillary campaign to use the song at all because Rachel was having her first real brush with fame and success after more than a decade of hustling in the music industry.

Speaker 3 And she didn't want to risk it. So when the campaign first called, Rachel was like, no.

Speaker 4 No, no, no, no, no. I was afraid.

Speaker 4 Even though. I did not.
want that to happen. And I was trying to stall my answer.
And

Speaker 4 I remember saying a gentle no, a respectful no for a couple months.

Speaker 3 Why?

Speaker 4 Because

Speaker 4 if you go back to the me that was there and had just had everything come after 13 years and was trying to shift and bend and shape myself into someone that I thought could keep this,

Speaker 4 I did not want to do anything divisive. And I was scared to be on any side of anything.

Speaker 4 And the song was resonating deeply with kids in the hospital, and with cancer patients, and with sports teams, and with people overcoming horrible things.

Speaker 4 And so, to all of a sudden, be asked to put my song as something that would stand for only one group

Speaker 4 was the opposite of what I believed. No matter what I personally believed, I didn't want my music to do that when I saw how healing music could be.

Speaker 3 Right. Just to enter any kind of arena of like divisiveness.
One versus another.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's not what I stand for. And it's not what I'm interested in or passionate about, though I understand how important it is in every other aspect of life.

Speaker 4 For me, as an artist, it's not what I'm here to do.

Speaker 3 So, so, how did that shift?

Speaker 4 Well,

Speaker 4 I think it got kind of hard to say no.

Speaker 4 You know, I think it just

Speaker 4 it didn't make that much sense to say no.

Speaker 3 Because

Speaker 4 I was on Columbia Records and I am married to a man that's very interested in politics and

Speaker 4 I have a family that's very interested. And like I had people around me very excited about the possibility and who didn't understand this like.

Speaker 4 somewhat naive but tender artist heart that I had that was scared. You know, everyone was just like, what are you talking about? Who cares? Like, I don't care if you're scared.
This matters.

Speaker 4 This fucking matters. You have to do this.
And I felt that in my soul, too. I felt like, you know, all right, okay, I'm a girl's girl.
I'm a woman's woman. I,

Speaker 4 as a woman,

Speaker 4 I have to allow this woman who's going to possibly be the first official nominee. Like, I have to let her use it.
I can't say no.

Speaker 4 Who am I to say no?

Speaker 3 After the break,

Speaker 3 why Rachel maybe should have said no.

Speaker 3 Like a small boat dump on the ocean.

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Speaker 3 Fight Song was already a hit, but it cemented its status when a version premiered at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Speaker 3 A montage of celebrities sang along in front of bright, colorful backgrounds. The vibes were: we are hopeful.
This is good.

Speaker 3 Also, we were still really into a cappella back then, post-pitch perfect and all.

Speaker 4 I might only have one match.

Speaker 4 Dumb, dumb, dum, dum,

Speaker 6 But I can make an explosion.

Speaker 4 The first time I heard it used in the context of her campaign was the DNC.

Speaker 4 And it was on TV. It's night two, who's pumped up?

Speaker 4 And caught, like, my husband being like, dude, turn it on.

Speaker 4 He was in New York, I think.

Speaker 4 And I was, I remember I was like in my towel with wet hair, alone in a small little like bungalow in Venice totally caught by surprise

Speaker 4 Like I knew she was going to but I think it hadn't been officialized or something like we didn't know if she'd actually use it for the DNC for some reason it might be dumb of me, but I didn't know that I completely expected it.

Speaker 4 And so hearing it was exciting and it was beautiful and it was, I had tears in my eyes and I was proud. And it was amazing.
It was amazing.

Speaker 4 This is our fight song.

Speaker 4 Take back our lives long.

Speaker 4 Prove we're all right song.

Speaker 3 That seems uncomplicated.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's uncomplicated. Regardless of what I believed, it was a very special thing to hear a song that I wrote for myself.

Speaker 4 It was uncomplicated and it was made me really proud.

Speaker 3 And did it remain that way?

Speaker 4 No.

Speaker 4 No.

Speaker 4 You know what happened. I mean, no, I mean, it wasn't just her losing.
It was

Speaker 4 the political pundits that these poor people who had to hear it over and over and over. My God, like anything you hear over and over is so annoying.
You hate the song that's the most played song.

Speaker 4 It's so fucking annoying. And so, of course, Fight Song became annoying.
And like, I just, I felt bad for them. I felt bad for my song.
I felt bad for me. I felt bad for all of us.

Speaker 4 It's just like, I don't want you to have to hear my song that much.

Speaker 4 And you don't want to hear my song that much. I did not agree to appear in this.
I was just told to wait here with these things on my ears.

Speaker 4 No one mentions this as part of a weirdly earnest acapella song for Clinton. Awful.

Speaker 7 Again, I did not agree to be part of this. This song is going to irritate people.

Speaker 4 And it became complicated and hard because there was a lot of tweets making fun of me and impersonalizing it. Like, you know, and I, Kevin, my husband is like, follows all of that.

Speaker 4 And so he was aware of what was happening and showing me if it maybe had been up to me, I wouldn't, I kind of would have just tuned it out or tried to.

Speaker 4 But he is obsessed with Twitter and the news cycle and like always updating. And so he was seeing all of it.

Speaker 4 And these people that he followed and kind of admired and looked up to were like making fun of his wife daily. He was just like, he was like, that's not good.

Speaker 4 And it didn't feel good. It was, it was confusing.
And it was, um, and I felt misunderstood. And I was taking it personally when it was not personal at all.
It wasn't personal. It was, it was, um,

Speaker 4 there is a naivety about the song if you don't know the artist behind it.

Speaker 4 And there is a simplicity about the song if you don't know me and you don't know my story and you don't know what happened to me and why I wrote it. And maybe there's a simplicity regardless.

Speaker 4 But yeah, to be made fun of was really, it was, it sucked. It sucked.

Speaker 3 did it make you feel

Speaker 3 um i don't know i'm guessing here but like ashamed of the more naive parts of you or like what was the part because sometimes you can you can say like fuck you twitter and sometimes it hurts you know i've never

Speaker 4 i i never could say i could never until now until i turned 40 had kids went through a severe mental health crisis now i don't give a shit i mean like i understand what matters and like who i really am and what and i derive my sense of worth from my own heart and from my family and friends.

Speaker 4 But at the time, like newly famous, I was very,

Speaker 4 I did not feel like fuck you, Twitter. I felt like, oh my God, I must be, like, there must be something bad about me or my writing, or like, it must be dumb.

Speaker 4 And then I would, it was conflicting because at the same time, I was still getting thousands and thousands of messages from people telling me that it was healing them from cancer or their battle cry or, you know, the thing that saved their life.

Speaker 4 So I also felt protective of the people people who were being moved by it. And so, that was a confusing feeling.
I kind of want it to be like, I wish that all of you

Speaker 4 could see the person in the hospital, or maybe it's your mom or your sister or your brother. Like, I wish you could see what I see and experience how this has healing power too.

Speaker 4 And, like, how anything massively popular, there's going to be people's positive reactions and negative reactions when it becomes so big. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And I think that it was hard to stomach and it was confusing. And yeah.

Speaker 3 Did it make you question any parts of yourself or the way that you were?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I think that my

Speaker 4 relentless positivity that I was promoting

Speaker 4 because I thought that that's what I was supposed to do as the singer behind Fight Song, it wasn't necessarily who I am. Yeah.
It was one part of me.

Speaker 4 Like, yes, I am a hopeful person to my core, but at the same time, I'm someone who has had trauma and faced pain and felt deep fear.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I didn't think that that was who I was supposed to be in the public. I didn't think that was who anyone wanted to see sing the fight song.

Speaker 3 Of course, we all know what happened next. Hillary lost.

Speaker 10 Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.

Speaker 3 This is not the outcome we wanted or weight song took on a different kind of feeling. The annoyance about the overexposure and its relentless optimism curdled into something meaner.

Speaker 3 It was no longer the anthem of the first female presidential campaign. It was a reminder of its failure.

Speaker 3 In 2020, Matt Miller of Esquire wrote this, quote, even four years later, it's impossible to separate that mindless, cloying chorus with the crumbling of our nation's pride.

Speaker 4 Do you remember when she lost?

Speaker 3 Like, were you at a party with your friends like a lot of people?

Speaker 4 I was

Speaker 4 unfortunately in a fitting because I had like some the American music, yeah, the American Music Awards. I think I had a fitting.
So I was, it was so stupid. I was in a gown.

Speaker 4 I was like trying on gowns, and I was very frustrated because I remember feeling like, this is so dumb.

Speaker 4 What have I, I've made the wrong life choices that I'm being stuffed into like a shiny sequin thing when this humongous thing is about to happen.

Speaker 4 And it was panicky. And we were all like, someone was like hemming the dress and like, you know, it was one of the classic movie moments where she, I think, pricked me.
And I was like,

Speaker 4 none of us were feeling great. And all of us were anxious.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 yeah, it felt so stupid and superficial to be doing that i remember looking around like what what am i doing

Speaker 3 and when she lost then did something change around the song for you or for the song like then what happened because that's like a whole other layer of meaning you know it's interesting

Speaker 4 people

Speaker 4 it changed for people in the political spectrum and and I'm sure people in the public, if they didn't know the song in any other context, I'm sure it changed in that way.

Speaker 4 But not for me personally, no. I mean, I was still touring to like 15,000, 20,000 people at a time who were screaming it back to me with tears in their eyes.

Speaker 4 And so like, it wasn't really changing for me in that way unless I looked on my phone.

Speaker 4 And there it was changing or at whatever the news was saying or like, you know, whoever was interviewing me and being told, oh, your song is actually representing failure now or like being made fun of in a worse way.

Speaker 4 I was like, okay, right. I understand that.
And yet I'm touring and this is what's happening in my actual life. So what am I supposed supposed to pay attention to?

Speaker 3 So you're like headlining and the people are responding to the song and then the narrative somewhere out there is like, oh, somewhere out there are people that hate it and hate me and hate what it means.

Speaker 4 And like, or not, hate's a strong word. That's what I felt.
That's a young part of me that felt that way. So that's probably why I said that.

Speaker 4 But like, there's a, there's a whole other group of people that are collectively maybe rolling their eyes or frustrated or feeling whatever way they are feeling.

Speaker 4 And yet there is a massive amount of people that I'm seeing in front of me that are feeling quite differently and also people online that are also still sending me those messages.

Speaker 4 And the song is still number one. So it's like, it's a little confusing, right?

Speaker 3 Knowing what you know now, would you still let the Hillary campaign or any campaign use your song?

Speaker 4 I don't, did you see my

Speaker 4 post on X? They were like, I think Matthew Iglesias was like, all right, pop stars, let's go. Kamala's running.
Where are you? Taylor, Selena.

Speaker 4 And I posted a meme of Homer Simpson like retreating into the bush.

Speaker 3 I was going to say, like, if another artist came to you and said, hey, like, Kamala's campaign wants to use my song, like, what would you say?

Speaker 4 I would say, I think I'm good. I think I'm good.
I love you. Bless you.
I think I've done my part in that way. And

Speaker 4 yeah, I think a kind, a kind hell no.

Speaker 3 Would you, uh, would you advise anyone else to do it?

Speaker 4 I don't know. I don't don't know.
I mean, on one hand, look, I had to go through all of that to be where I am today. Interesting.

Speaker 4 I don't regret it. I don't look back and like feel dumb or feel hurt anymore about it.
I feel a sense of understanding and like kindness towards the Rachel that in that moment made that decision.

Speaker 4 And I love her and I wish I could put my arms around her and say, this is going to suck.

Speaker 4 But what you're going to learn from this experience is, whew, it's so good. And I don't want to rob you of that experience so girl get your armor on get your big girl's panties on let's go

Speaker 3 this episode of radio atlantic was produced by janae west it was edited by claudina bade fact-checked by steph hayes and engineered by rob smersiak claudina bade is the executive producer of atlantic Audio, and Andrea Valdez is our managing editor.

Speaker 3 By the way, Rachel has a new album out. It's called I Am Rachel Plattin.
I'm Hannah Rosen and thank you for listening.

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