Leonard Cohen’s estate has issued a cease and desist order to Donald Trump after a recording of Rufus Wainwright singing Cohen’s song Hallelujah was played at a bizarre campaign event.

Wainwright also condemned Trump’s use of the song at the town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania. The singer characterized Hallelujah as “an anthem dedicated to peace, love and acceptance of the truth. Over the years I have been extremely honored to be associated with this ode to tolerance. It was the height of blasphemy to see Trump and his supporters interact with this music last night. Of course, I don’t condone this in any way and was mortified, but the good part of me hopes that perhaps by inhabiting and actually listening to the lyrics of Cohen’s masterpiece, Donald Trump would experience a tinge of remorse for what he caused. I’m not holding my breath.”

The song was one of several Trump played during a question and answer session in Oaks, where many spectators needed medical attention amid high temperatures. Trump first joked about the heat: “Personally, I’m enjoying this. We lose weight. We could do this, lose four, five pounds” – and then switch to playing music like Luciano Pavarotti’s recording of Ave Maria, saying: “Let’s stop asking questions. Let’s just listen to music.”

In addition to Hallelujah, Guns N’ Roses’ epic power ballad November Rain was also played, alongside James Brown’s It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World, the Village People’s YMCA and Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U.

Trump later wrote on Truth Social: “The Q&A was almost over when people passed out from the excitement and heat. We started playing music while we waited, and just kept going. So different, but it ended up being a GREAT EVENING!”

Kamala Harris captioned a clip of the event with the words, “Hope he’s doing well.”

It has become common for artists to oppose their music being played at Trump campaign rallies and events. In August, Beyoncé blocked the use of her song Freedom – a licensed soundtrack for the Harris-Walz campaign – after it appeared in a Trump campaign video. Earlier that month, the estate of the late Isaac Hayes opposed the use of the Hayes-penned Sam & Dave hit Hold On, I’m Comin’.

So many other artists have opposed him, from Rihanna to the Rolling Stones, that there is a Wikipedia page dedicated to the phenomenon.

Hallelujah, meanwhile, remains a modern pop standard, performed by dozens of artists since its initially overlooked release by Cohen in 1984. The most famous version was recorded by Jeff Buckley in 1994, but that was inspired by John Cale’s 1991 version, while that by Wainwright followed. in 2001, recorded for the Shrek soundtrack.

Alexandra Burke’s version reached Christmas Number 1 in Britain in 2008 after winning The X Factor, while Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi and Bono are among the other artists with renditions.