Ariana Grande has discovered that owning your own music is apparently not enough to stop the government from using it without permission. The White House deployed her song “Bye” in a video, which Grande promptly called “heinous nonsense”—a phrase that should probably be on a plaque somewhere for its perfect encapsulation of modern celebrity exhaustion.
The absurdity here is exquisite. A pop star recorded a song about leaving. A political apparatus used that song to leave. Grande objected. Everyone involved is technically correct and yet the entire situation is a monument to how broken the relationship between art and power has become.
She is not alone. Multiple artists have now had to issue formal cease-and-desist letters to elected officials like they’re sending angry emails to a Spotify playlist curator who won’t take a hint. This is the state of intellectual property in 2026: musicians must actively defend their work from the government the way you’d defend your WiFi password from a neighbor.
The White House presumably has lawyers. Grande definitely has lawyers. Both sides know exactly what copyright means. Yet here we are, with a superstar forced to publicly humiliate a sitting administration because it cannot fathom that “Bye” was not a gift to their messaging team.
The real comedy is that Grande’s objection will change nothing. By next week, some congressman will be using her music again, and she’ll have to tweet something meaner. This is the cycle now. Artists don’t own their work—they just get to complain about who’s using it.