Sometimes it takes an outsider to provide fresh insight. British comedian and songwriter Tom Rosenthal's "Melania" just might be the best protest song to be released since Trump's Presidential Inauguration. Rosenthal's British citizenship arguably allows him the liberty to take the President in a direct way that may be too risky for most American artists (especially when you take the 2003 Dixie Chicks controversy into consideration). American artists like Katy Perry, Coco Rosie and Portugal. The Man thus understandably couch their themes of protest and revolt in relatively vague terms, leaving it to a British transplant like Anohni to take on the risky and explicitly political turns of phrase.
In a manner akin to Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's short story, which imagined the complexity of Melania Trump's daily existence during her husband's presidential campaign, Rosenthal establishes an empathic identification with the First Lady. By casting her as a figure worthy of sympathy and a fellow victim of The Donald (which happens to be a popular response to Trump's public lack of appreciation for her), he sets the stage for a rare kind of satire - one wrapped apparent sincerity and honest desperation instead of rage and the need to mobilize a reactionary force:
'Oh Melania, he walks ahead of yaNo good man should do thatHe is the mightiest pratThe world has ever seenWhy did you become his queen?'
Lyrics: LetsSingIt
This effectively sets the scene for the song's main theme: an impossible appeal for Melania to stand with the people instead of her billionaire husband by sabotaging his ambitions for power, money and fame:
'Do you like those tiny hands?Only you can break up the bandYou can be like Yoko OnoYou don't have to be on your own-oYou can shave off all his hairYou can leave on him on the lake'
Desperation clearly leads to comedic creativity as Rosenthal's pleas become increasingly outlandish. Melania is asked to 'throw his phone down the Grand Canyon', 'put him in a rocket [and] send him to outer space', 'build him a wall/ That surrounds him on all sides', 'lock him in a lift with bunch of scientists' and to 'secretly film him hugging a Russian'.
It's unfortunately highly unlikely for Melania to pull off any of these radical stunts (perhaps a song that appeals to Ivanka's moral conscience might be slightly more realistic). But in appealing to the woman who has to interact with the President in the most intimate ways and establishing a shared experience of victimhood with her, "Melania" offers an unexpectedly cathartic experience to everyone who was blindsided by Trump's rise to power:
'Melania, we need you,will you please help us out, thank you.You could go down in history,as the one who set us free temporarily'
