Katy Perry condemns White House for using 'Firework' in military strike video

On Thursday, the White House posted a video to TikTok that would set off a chain reaction of anger among some of music's biggest names. The clip showed black-and-white footage of recent military strikes on Iranian targets, edited to sync with the percussive "boom, boom, boom" from Katy Perry's 2010 hit "Firework." The caption was blunt: "Iran has been warned," followed by a firework emoji.

Perry, now 41, did not take long to respond. By Saturday, she had posted on X condemning what she called a complete violation of her song's purpose. She had never approved the use, she wrote, and was never asked. The song, she explained, was written as an anthem for people in their darkest moments—a message about inner strength and self-worth. To see it weaponized as a soundtrack to military violence felt like a betrayal of everything the track represented. "My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare," she concluded.

The White House's response came through Deputy Assistant to the President Kaelan Dorr, who replied to Perry's post with a montage from her 2012 music video for "Part of Me." In that video, Perry had joined the U.S. Marines and trained alongside service members. Dorr's message was pointed: "This you?" The implication was clear—Perry had once celebrated military service in her own art, so why object now?

The clash sits within a larger pattern. Perry is not the first artist to object to the Trump administration's use of her music in official posts. In June, Ariana Grande denounced the White House for pairing her song "Bye" with a TikTok video showing Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests. She called the practice barbaric and inhumane. The White House fired back with a statement defending ICE enforcement. The song was eventually removed. In March, Kesha had similarly protested when the administration used her 2010 track "Blow" to accompany footage of a fighter jet launching a missile. She called it disgusting and inhumane, saying the administration was using her music to incite violence. Other artists including Bruce Springsteen, Céline Dion, and Sabrina Carpenter have lodged similar complaints.

When Kesha objected, Dorr responded with mockery, writing that her quotes were "like Popeye's spinach to this team." White House Communications Director Steven Cheung was more direct, suggesting the artists were falling for a trap—that their complaints only boosted the videos' view counts. "Thank you for your attention to this matter," he wrote.

The Perry situation carries an additional layer. In September 2023, she had sold her music catalog rights to Litmus Music, a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group, in a deal worth $225 million. The agreement covered her first five studio albums: "One of the Boys," "Teenage Dream," "PRISM," "Witness," and "Smile." It included master recording royalties and publishing rights to some of her biggest songs—"I Kissed A Girl," "Hot N' Cold," "Roar," "California Gurls," and "Dark Horse," along with "Firework." When "Firework" was released as the third single from "Teenage Dream" in 2010, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and helped the album tie Michael Jackson's "Bad" as the only records ever to produce five number-one singles.

The question of who controls a song's use becomes murky once an artist sells their catalog. Perry no longer owns the master recordings or publishing rights to "Firework." Yet her objection raises a question about artistic intent and moral authority that ownership alone may not settle. The White House's use of the song without seeking permission from either Perry or the current rights holders suggests a broader indifference to the distinction between legal use and ethical use—between what the law might allow and what an artist believes their work should represent.