Katy Perry blasts White House over use of ‘Firework’ in military strike video

Katy Perry has blasted the White House after it used her hit song Firework in a social media video featuring footage of military strikes.

The controversy began after the White House’s official TikTok account posted a video on July 23 showing missiles exploding while Perry’s 2010 anthem played in the background. The clip, which featured the lyrics “boom, boom, boom,” was captioned, “Iran has been warned.”

Two days later, Perry responded on X, expressing her outrage over the use of her music.

“I am deeply appalled and angry to see Firework used on the @WhiteHouse TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes. I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it,” the singer wrote.

Perry continued, “I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their darkest personal moments. To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized to soundtrack destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for.”

She added, “My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.”

Perry is the latest artist to publicly object to the Trump administration’s use of popular music in official social media posts.

Several musicians, including Céline Dion, Bruce Springsteen, Linkin Park, Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter and Radiohead, have previously asked the administration to stop using their songs without permission.

Last month, Ariana Grande also criticised the White House after one of its TikTok videos promoting immigration enforcement used her song Bye.