In what is believed to be the closest election in modern American history based on pre-voting polls, numerous well-known individuals are attempting to make a small impact.
Celebrities emerged in droves in the final weeks of the campaign to show overwhelming support for Kamala Harris, while Patrick Mahomes’s mother rooted for Donald Trump at the Kansas City Chiefs’ election-eve football game. Celebrity endorsements can be a double-edged sword for Democrats, sometimes conveying strength and advantage, other times appearing elitist, desperate, and excessively corny and self-important. Particularly when these endorsements involve a celebrity advocacy avenue that leans more towards the negative side: celebrity election songs.
There hasn’t been a surge of star-studded musical numbers for the election – no equivalent of the “Imagine” video for Harris, at least not at the time of writing. However, a few songs, mainly from older artists targeting older, somewhat online voters, have missed the current “Kamala IS brat” trend. Will.i.am recently released “Yes She Can,” an acoustic “heartfelt anthem” in support of Harris. In a black-and-white video, the rapper criticizes Trump – “People entertained by the predator / we used to be united in America / now we just divided in America” – and urges people to “vote for your life / do it for your daughters and your sons and your wife” on a superficial level. “If you’re a woman then vote for your rights / and don’t let them take away your rights,” he says over footage of protests for reproductive rights outside the Supreme Court. The song is a kind of spinoff of his even more cringeworthy Obama-era election single “Yes We Can,” featuring a very 2008 lineup of celebrities – including Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Common, Kate Walsh, Nicole Scherzinger, and Bryan Greenberg from “One Tree Hill” – singing over footage of Obama’s iconic campaign speech.
Similarly, Stevie Wonder, who has campaigned alongside Harris, took a similarly overly earnest approach, emphasizing unity in a country where many see that as unattainable. The 74-year-old singer embarked on a 10-stop tour in the month leading up to the election; the “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” tour called for “joy over anger, kindness over recrimination, peace over war” and featured an original song, “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart,” that promoted listening, compassion, and coming together despite differences. “’Cause if we listen to different thoughts and points of views / All my brothers and sisters, we don’t have to lose humanity / We’re family, so can we please / Fix our nation’s broken heart?” he sings. “We’ve been floating alone in a dark and bitter cold / ’Cause there’s a growing ocean of lies that we’ve been told to tear us down / But what I’ve found is with our truth, compassion, and love / We can fix our nation’s broken heart.”
On the other hand, Nick Offerman from “Parks and Recreation” opted for a satirical approach. In August, the actor, known for his role as a gun-toting libertarian on the NBC sitcom, released “Proud to be a Kamala Man,” a parody of Trump’s favorite Lee Greenwood track “God Bless the USA,” in which he refers to the former president as a “half-assed Putin wannabe” and a “fuckin’ dick.” Other artists have taken a more subtle but still clear stance. Pearl Jam recently released a song called “Wreckage” that, according to Eddie Vedder, may or may not be about Donald Trump. (Lyrics like “Oh, visited by thoughts and not just in the night / That I no longer give a fuck who is wrong and who’s right / This game of winner takes all and all means nothing left / Spoils go the victor and the other left for dead” feel … appropriate.) As voters headed to the polls, Beyoncé – perhaps the most prominent celebrity endorsement for Kamala – released a music video for her track “Bodyguard” that featured her dressed up as Pamela Anderson in “Baywatch” and “Barb Wire” for Halloween, with a final image that simply said: vote.
All of these efforts feel somewhat self-congratulatory, unnecessary, or overly earnest – it’s challenging to create an anthem or message for an election where cynicism prevails for many. Arguably, the most effective election songs are those that reference a specific issue or a past that should not be forgotten. REM, for instance, released a new lyric video for their 1986 song “I Believe” that included footage of the band’s decades-old statements supporting reproductive rights, gun control, voting rights, and alternative energy sources. The video, posted a week before election day, featured a message from frontman Michael Stipe: “I believe the choices in this election could not be more stark or more important. Please vote and encourage everyone you know to do the same – that is how we win in 2024 and I believe we can do it!!!”
At the end of September, Stevie Nicks released her track “The Lighthouse,” a rock-infused tune she began working on in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, in an election where abortion access will be a defining issue. In the song, which Nicks referred to as “the most important thing I ever do,” the former Fleetwood Mac singer calls on younger women to learn about their history and fight for their rights: “I want to teach them to fight / I want to tell them this has happened before, don’t let it happen again,” she sings. “They’ll take your soul, take your power, unless you stand up, take it back / Try to see the future and get mad.”
It’s not surprising that most of these election tunes come from older artists, while younger ones like Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo express their support online, in the internet’s preferred mode of authenticity that doesn’t veer into full earnestness. Others, such as Chappell Roan and MUNA, have continued to draw attention to the war in Gaza – an issue where Harris has faced challenges in attracting younger voters – by not fully endorsing the vice president.
Ultimately, election songs are unlikely to make more of a difference than any other celebrity endorsement tactic, which are already of questionable effectiveness. They serve as another way to pass the time – to cringe, to laugh, maybe to feel – as we all wait to see what happens next.