The Blessed Madonna 'absolutely repulsed' after Rishi Sunak uses their song in Instagram post

It rarely ends well when politicians try to use musicians’ songs without permission – and Rishi Sunak’s recent use of a song by producer The Blessed Madonna is no different.

On Saturday, the prime minister’s Instagram account posted a video of Sunak with the song 'Marea (we’ve lost dancing)', by The Blessed Madonna and Fred Again, as its backing.

The post was a compilation of Sunak’s events over recent weeks, including trips to a factory in Sunderland and meetings with King Charles, David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt.

However, it looks to have backfired, after the American musician, who is non-binary, voiced their displeasure in the comments section.

They said: “I just want to say, for the record, I’d rather hear my own death rattle echoing in my ears, as I plunge happily into the void than hear the sound of my voice in an ad for the Tories.

“What comes next is an election.”

The comment had more than 600 likes on Instagram and has risen to the top of the comments section, meaning anyone looking at Sunak’s post can also see how much the musician dislikes him. Oops.

The Blessed Madonna, whose real name is Marea Stamper, has campaigned against government policy on a number of occasions.

They are one of more than 4,000 musicians to sign a letter demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, after Israeli attacks on the territory killed nearly 15,000 people since early October.

And they are an ambassador for Choose Love, a refugee aid charity. Sunak has made it one of his marquee policies to have undocumented migrants flown out to Rwanda, a plan which the Supreme Court recently judged to be illegal.

In another comment, The Blessed Madonna added: “I am absolutely repulsed by this.”

It’s not the first time the Tories have embarrassed themselves with their choice of music.

When former prime minister Liz Truss walked onto the stage to the sound of M People’s hit “Moving On Up" at the Conservative Party conference, M People founder Mike Pickering was less than impressed.

“So apparently we can’t stop Truss walking out to our song, very weird!” Pickering wrote on X/Twitter.

“So sad it got used by this shower of a government. [By the way] Truss, Labour used it with permission in [the] Nineties. I don’t want my song being a soundtrack to lies.”

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