Written by Ethan Chiel — Earlier this month, the internet was captivated by the USA Freedom Kids, a group of girls who performed a very…interesting song called “Freedom’s Call” at a Donald Trump rally on January 14th.
The video, titled “The Official Donald Trump Jam,” was posted by a Phoenix, Arizona area Fox affiliate. Over 4.5 million views later, it has been removed from YouTube. According to the video’s now empty page, the takedown was “due to a copyright claim by EMI Music Publishing.”
Jeff Popick, the manager of the Freedom Kids, told me over the phone that it was the first he’d heard of the performance being removed.
It’s possible that YouTube’s auto-removal bots finally caught some infringement (real or perceived) on the song, though if that’s the case, it’s odd it took them so long.
The more likely case, though, is that someone realized that “Over There,” the World War I song that Freedom’s Call’s tune is taken from, is still copyrighted. And that the copyright belongs to Sony/ATV Music Publishing, EMI Music Publishing’s parent company. Fox 10 Phoenix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor has EMI.
I’ve reached out to Sony/ATV Music Publishing, but have yet to hear back. I’ll update this post if I do.
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