We’re happy to announce the Press Release!
We are happy to announce the press release of TRUMPED BY MUSIC. Please share the press release with your contacts!
On July 24th, TRUMPED BY MUSIC announced an open call for anti-Trump musicians to submit music videos to be featured on www.trumpedbymusic.com. It didn’t take long for it to create quite a storm in the Netherlands.
The 6 weeks before the election on November 3, film makers David Grover (US) and Frank van Osch (the Netherlands) will post a short film with song segments and interviews with their favorite anti-Trump singer/songwriters: a musical finger on the pulse of America, in which they see and hear how musicians express their views about “The Donald”. And especially how that sounds!
In order to raise funds for this online documentary series, they launched a crowdfunding campaign, supported by a provincial governmental program. Somehow the local Dutch press got wind of this small campaign and associated government support and ran an article about it.
The reason for the press interest was a complaint from the PVV (Party For Freedom), which is one of the extreme rightwing parties in the Netherlands, led at the national level by Geert Wilders. On July 29th, in an article published by a regional broadcaster, the PVV said: “It’s a major scandal if the province is supporting interference in the US Presidential election in this way.” Two days later, the Brabants Dagblad (Daily) entered the fray. The PVV said: “This is not art, its politics. Artists can do what they want, but it’s absurd if tax money goes here.”
And so this little hurricane was born. The PVV has sent an official inquiry to the provincial government, and the government is obligated to respond. It can be a fine line between activism and art, and the Dutch discussions in the upcoming weeks will draw that line.
To be continued. For now, the TRUMPED BY MUSIC Team is looking for any musicians that might like to be profiled!
Here are some relevant links to our project:
Perhaps it’s an interesting topic for you to discuss on your program? The Medium article provides a short overview of the controversy, as well as the response of the TRUMPED BY MUSIC team. A Dutch columnist also provided his perspective (Read the English version here).
With heightened sensitivity regarding any foreign noise concerning the US election, perhaps it was inevitable that a culture project featuring anti-Trump musicians could draw the ire of right wing politicians. We just didn’t expect it to be Dutch right wing politicians!
