Claim:
Singer-songwriter Josh Groban confronted U.S. President Donald Trump over asking a band to play the famous song “You Raise Me Up.”
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in November 2025 claimed singer-songwriter Josh Groban confronted U.S. President Donald Trump over asking a band to play the famous song “You Raise Me Up.” Groban famously covered the song in 2003. The Irish-Norwegian band Secret Garden originally wrote and performed “You Raise Me Up” in 2001.
As an example of the rumor, on Nov. 1, a user managing the Facebook page Graceful Melodies posted (archived) an image showing a photo of Groban next to a picture of Trump. The caption began, “The moment Donald Tr.Ï….mp pointed toward the band and said, ‘Play You Raise Me Up,’ — it was already too late. Somewhere, Josh Groban was watching live, and this time, he wasn’t staying silent.” The post featured a link leading to an advertisement-filled WordPress blog article hosted on the sportnewss.livextop.com website.
(Graceful Melodies/Facebook)
Snopes readers also searched our website for answers about this matter.
In short, the rumor Groban confronted Trump — or that Trump asked on live TV for a band to play “You Raise Me Up” — was false. Facebook users mostly residing outside the U.S. entirely fabricated the rumor, including with the use of artificial-intelligence (AI) tools. The Graceful Melodies Facebook page’s “page transparency” tab revealed at least two of their managers resided in Vietnam.
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting any such news about Groban and Trump. Prominent outlets would have widely reported this rumor, if true.
Snopes contacted a Groban representative to ask for comment about this false rumor and will update this story if we receive further information.
Story written with AI
The advertisements appearing with the WordPress blog article — containing text resembling stories generated with AI tools — indicated a clear profit motive. The article ended with several sentences of forward-thinking, dramatized statements in the same way AI tools conclude similar fabricated stories. For example, the final sentences read as follows:
The Last Note
It wasn’t a concert.
It wasn’t a protest.
It was a reminder.
That even in the loudest storms, the quiet truth still sings.
And on that night, under the cold Washington sky, Josh Groban didn’t just raise his voice — he raised the bar.
Other Facebook users shared variants of the same story about Trump appearing on live TV and asking a band to play a specific song, for example a post (archived) mentioning country star Dolly Parton and her hit “Jolene.”
Groban’s wish to ‘warn’ about Trump
In 2018, Big Issue — a U.K.-based newspaper with an About Us page (archived) saying its staff is “working to end poverty in the U.K.” — published (archived) a “letter to my younger self” written by Groban. Groban closed the letter with a mention of Trump:
If I could go back in time to my 16-year-old self, I would warn every man, woman and child in 1998 about Donald Trump. I would make sure that everyone had a Donald Trump safety preparation kit. I’d pack a backpack at 16, preparing myself for 2017, to just go to the woods for a few years.
Regarding the similar claim about Parton, Snopes previously published an article laying out 15 claims about her we’ve reported on over the years.
Sources
Donahue, Bill. “Josh Groban’s ‘You Raise Me Up’ Didn’t Violate Copyrights, Court Says.” Billboard, 30 Nov. 2021, https://www.billboard.com/pro/josh-groban-you-raise-me-up-copyright-lawsuit-ruling/.
“Josh Groban – You Raise Me Up (Official Music Video) [HD Remaster].” YouTube, Josh Groban, 25 Oct. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJxrX42WcjQ.
Kelly, Laura. “Josh Groban: ‘If I Could Go Back in Time I Would Warn Everyone about Trump.'” Big Issue, 28 Aug. 2018, https://www.bigissue.com/culture/music/josh-groban-if-i-could-go-back-in-time-i-would-warn-everyone-about-trump/.
Maddaus, Gene. “Judge Tosses Copyright Suit Involving Josh Groban Song ‘You Raise Me Up.'” Variety, 7 Apr. 2020, https://variety.com/2020/music/news/josh-groban-you-raise-me-up-lawsuit-copyright-1234572695/.
@songsyouknowpodcast. “The Story of ‘You Raise Me Up’…” TikTok, 18 Dec. 2024, https://www.tiktok.com/@songsyouknowpodcast/video/7449823478225702176.
