K-pop who? It’s Kamala pop time

Celebs back new Democratic nominee using hit songs to boost campaign

According to AFP, the pop world has coalesced rapidly around Kamala Harris’s last-minute candidacy, as the US vice president gets a boost from an online explosion of videos mixing her speeches with hit songs.

Janelle Monae, John Legend and Charli XCX are among the star musicians who have publicly backed Harris, along with myriad Hollywood endorsements including from George Clooney, Viola Davis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Robert De Niro.

Even Beyonce — who is known to strictly guard clearance of her music — reportedly has approved the Harris campaign to use her song Freedom on the trail.

The megastar’s mother, Tina Knowles, quickly backed the now-presumptive Democratic nominee Harris after President Joe Biden’s late-stage election exit.

A meme-able choice

Fans have been posting remixes of Harris speeches and interviews — her idiosyncratic phrasings frequently catch meme fire and the past week have been aflame — with music by pop artists of the moment, including, Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan.

It helps that Harris is eminently meme-able; plenty of videos show her dancing with physical comedy bordering on slapstick.

The internet used to mash up those kooky moments to diss the 59-year-old VP — but since Biden’s campaign plummeted following his disastrous debate, the videos appear to be bolstering her presence, notably among chronically online young voters.

Celebrities have also gotten on board, capturing the marketing moment in the inextricably linked worlds of music and social media while also leaning into Harris’s candidacy.

Brat-coded

British artist and star of the summer Charli XCX in particular has seen her smash album Brat become core to the early online Harris campaign.

The “Brat Summer” meme was already alive and well before Harris became associated with it.

The trend emphasises an aesthetic and lifestyle inspired by Charli’s club album that offers a heavy dose of party-girl energy with undertones of youthful anxiety.

When fans began applying the inescapable lime-green “brat” filter to Kamala Harris images, Charli voiced approval.

“Kamala IS brat,” the 31-year-old pop star posted, a sign-off the Harris campaign quickly embraced.

In its transition from Biden to Harris, the campaign’s official X account also rebranded as brat-coded, with its cover photo mimicking the album’s neon-green — “Shrek-coloured,” as the internet likes to call it — and lo-resolution JPEG vibe.

Katy Perry, whose anthemic Roar was frequently played on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, also pushed her latest single Woman’s World while backing Harris.

She posted a montage clip of Harris with a remix of her song and the now famous “coconut tree” quote that’s also made the presidential hopeful an internet star.

“It’s a woman’s world, and you’re lucky to be living in it,” sings Perry.

Cardi B reminded fans she had already said Harris should replace Biden, whom she supported in 2020 after initially backing the socialist-leaning Senator Bernie Sanders.

Shortly after Biden announced his withdrawal, the Bronx rapper reposted a video she’d made prior in which she says Harris should be the Democratic flag-bearer.

“Stop playing with me!” she wrote in her caption accompanying the clip, emphasising her self-proclaimed prescience.

“Told y’all Kamala should’ve been the 2024 candidate. Y’all be trying to play the Bronx education, baby this what I do! Been my passion. don’t let my accent fool y’all.”

Cardi had previously indicated that she wasn’t planning to vote when Biden was the nominee — she did not make clear whether her stance had changed now that Harris was the presumed candidate.