Famous musicians who were accused of plagiarism

Lady Gaga's hit 'Born This Way' caused a lot of ink to flow. Even Madonna remarked that the new star must have been a little too inspired by her song 'Express Yourself'... but Madonna didn't go to court.

The French artist ORLAN did go to court though. She demanded 23 million euros ($25,8) and 7.5% of the profits on Lady Gaga's. Her lawyer claimed that Gaga had copied the aesthetic image of the French artist as well as the idea of hybridization promoted by his client. ORLAN has been performing with a series of surgical implants on her face since 1994 for a project that she calls "Self-hybridizations."

In the end, the trial did not take place and the French artist was ordered to pay Gaga $12,000 in legal costs and $6,000 to Universal Music Group Recording and Universal Music France.

Do you remember 'Ice Ice Baby' (1990), Vanilla Ice's hit song? This title was released in 1989 and is still known today. Still, there was a clear issue of debate surrounding plagiarism. Several Queen fans have indeed claimed that the song is extremely similar to 'Under Pressure' (1981).

According to Rolling Stone magazine, although it was denied at all times that there was any connection or "inspiration" based on Queen's track, David Bowie and Queen were ultimately paid for the profits the song made generated, and were credited to the track. A practical way to settle things without making waves.

In March 2022, the pop star was accused of plagiarism for her track 'Levitating,' released in 2020. Reggae group Artikal Sound System filed a complaint against the singer for "copyright violation" in federal court in Los Angeles. According to them, Dua Lipa would have copied the melody of their song 'Live Your Life' to write one of her greatest hits.

Then, Cory Daye also reported for a lawsuit, as the artist claims her 1979 single 'Wiggle and a Giggle All Night' sounds too much like 'Levitating.

According to TMZ, the complaints have indicated that it would be "highly unlikely that 'Levitating' was created independently" as the two titles have similarities. American justice will have to decide.

During her career, Taylor Swift has repeatedly been accused of plagiarism. A recent accusation dates back to August 2022. This time, the accusation did not concern one of her songs, but the booklet that accompanied her album 'Lover,' released in 2019. The complaint was filed by lawyers for the poet Teresa La Dart, who published a book called 'Lover' in 2010.

The plagiarism complaint involved the title but also the design of the booklet, as well as several creative details. The lawyers of Teresa La Dart asked for more than a million dollars in damages, but they didn't get the judge on their side.

Ed Sheeran was accused in 2017 of plagiarism with his song 'Shape of You.' Critics said there was a similarity to one of the verses of TLC's 'No Scrubs'. Without making a big deal out of it, Sheeran acknowledged the facts, Billboard reports.

A few years later, 'Shape of You' was debated again when Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue filed a complaint against the singer for plagiarizing their song 'Oh Why' (2015). Finally, a British judge refuted their accusations and the pop star obtained a payment of more than one million euros in damages.

But it was still not over for Ed Sheeran! In October 2022, the British singer was again accused of plagiarism, this time for his track 'Thinking Out Loud,' which some considered too similar to the song 'Let's Get It On,' by Marvin Gaye. He had to report to the American courts in 2023 but was ruled innocent of plagiarism.

Do you remember Katy Perry's hit 'Dark Horse'? Nobody can deny that the musical theme is very catchy and familiar... That's why the rapper Flame, real name Marcus Gray, was quick to see similarities with his music. He accused the singer of plagiarism, claiming that she had copied his song 'Joyful Noise.'

After seven years of trials and twists and turns, Katy Perry finally won her case. In March 2022, the American judge ruled in her favor: 'Dark Horse' is not considered by the courts to be plagiarism.

According to American singer White Hinterland, Justin Bieber's hit 'Sorry' contains parts that sound like her song 'Ring The Bell'. She was so convinced she was within her rights that she even extended the lawsuit against producer Skrillex and the song's co-writers, Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, and Michael Tucker.

As the news portal TMZ reports, the singer finally decided to drop the lawsuits and release Justin and the others from the initial blame. However, the reasons why she decided not to pursue this lawsuit remain unclear.

In 2021, it was the turn of the French electro group Justice to accuse the Canadian singer of having plagiarized their logo on his eighth album 'Justice.' Finally, the court of Nanterre considered that the similarities between the two logos were not obvious and ordered the French musicians to pay the legal costs of the opposing parties.

If you're a fan of Sam Smith, you've probably heard his song 'Stay With Me,' right? It turns out that many fans found it to bear a great resemblance to Tom Petty's song 'I Won't Back Down.'

Faced with this question, Petty hastened to contact Smith to find an agreement. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Sam Smith made no objection to acknowledging Tom Petty and Jeff Lyne's credit until it ended up in court.

But it wasn't over.

A few years later, in March 2022, the group Sound and Color filed a complaint against Sam Smith for plagiarism in 'Dancing with a Stranger' (2019), a duet recorded with Normani. The group had released a song of the same title a few years earlier, and it had several musical similarities, they said. A trial should begin soon to clarify the situation.

The Colombian singer has not escaped an accusation of plagiarism, for his title 'Loco Contigo.' Two young Panamanian musicians have demanded more than $20 million from J Balvin and other reggaeton stars (Ozuna, Natti Natasha, Nicky Jam, Darell, and Sech) for the alleged plagiarism of the hit.

According to the plaintiffs, the original song titled 'Loco Contigo' was created in 2017 by a Jamaican artist. A trial will determine if the similarities are significant enough to call plagiarism.

Jay-Z has been accused of plagiarism multiple times. The most publicized case is probably that of 'Big P i m p i n,' a hit for which Osama Fahmy, the nephew of Baligh Hamdi, accused Jay-Z of having copied the melody of the oriental flute. According to him, the tune belonged to the song composed for the film 'Khosara Khosara.'

According to information from 'El Comercio,' Jay-Z's lawyers quickly contacted the record company EMI Arabia, which owns the rights to the film, to offer them $100,000. The sum was split between Hamdi's heirs, but Fahmy decided to sue on the grounds that the deal had no value under Egyptian law. However, his requests were denied.

Shakira has been accused of plagiarism on more than one occasion. In 2014, a federal judge in New York ruled that her song 'Loca' violated the copyrights of Ramón Aries Vázquez. The most curious thing about this story is that Shakira was inspired by a song by composer Edward Bello, 'El Cata,' which in fact was the one plagiarizing Arias Vázquez. In the end, 'El Cata' took on the lawsuit personally and kept Shakira out of the lawsuit. He lost the rights he had to the song.

Most recently, the Colombian singer was accused on TikTok by a young singer named Briella of being inspired by her song 'Solo tú' to create her session with Bizarrap. The track that has gone viral in which Shakira settles scores with her ex, Gerard Pique, is allegedly very similar to Briella's song.

It was the French DJ Breakbot who, via his social media, wondered about the great resemblance between the song 'Treasure' by Bruno Mars and his own song, 'Baby I'm Yours.' Although the case did not go to court, Breakbot declared to the media that the "inspiration" that Bruno Mars drew from his music was akin to something else and could be considered as such...

And this is not the only accusation of plagiarism against the singer. In 2016, TMZ reported that Bruno Mars and Marc Ronson, creators of the hit 'Uptown Funk' (2014), were accused of plagiarism by the American group Collage. According to the members of this collective, the song was similar to their 'Young Girl' (1983) in terms of "rhythm, harmony, melody, and even overall structure."

The Black Eyed Peas have repeatedly been accused of plagiarism. In 2009, it was the title 'Party All the Time' that caused debate. According to the famous blogger of the time, Perez Hilton, several passages of this track had similarities with 'Mancry' by Adam Freeland. The Black Eyed Peas had finally reached an "amicable agreement" with Freeland.

In 2018, the group was once again singled out, this time by English producer Lone. He said that the Black Eyed Peas copied one of his creations, used for Chanel's Haute Couture show in 2013, to make their song 'Constant Part 1 & 2.'

In December 2008, American guitarist Joe Satriani sued Coldplay after claiming that the worldwide hit 'Viva la Vida' had adopted the rhythmic basis of his song 'If I Could Fly' (2004).

In an interview with MusicRadar, Satriani said: "Almost immediately, from the minute their song came out, my e-mail box flooded with people going, ‘Have you heard this song by Coldplay? They ripped you off, man.’ I mean, I couldn’t tell you how many e-mails I received."

In 2009, the two parties finally reached a financial agreement that saved the plagiarism case from going to court.

Enrique Iglesias, Descemer Bueno, and Gente de Zona achieved huge success in the summer of 2014 with their song 'Bailando.' But they probably didn't expect Cristian Mauricio Escuti and German Schulz, two musicians from Florida, to accuse them of plagiarism.

Schulz explained that they composed the song 'Quiero Bailar Contigo' in 2009, then offered it to an artistic director at Sony Music in 2012, and never heard from him again.

Although the two musicians claimed that the song 'Bailando' had the same melody, lyrics, and rhythm as 'Quiero Bailar Contigo,' the fact is that the musicians were unable to give evidence to the court. Too bad for them...

Mexican singer Luis Miguel, a true icon in South America, has experienced all kinds of trials throughout his musical career. One of them was a lawsuit for plagiarism by Marcos Lifshitz, who claimed that 'Amarte es un placer' (1999) strongly resembled his song 'Siento nuestro aliento,' which he had composed in 1997 and presented to Warner Music.

Several experts have analyzed the song. Eventually, it was concluded that it had clearly been plagiarized, and the court agreed with the plaintiff. Luis Miguel had to pay 40% of the profits generated by the song as compensation, approximately 37 million euros ($41.5 million).

Michael Jackson's song 'Will you be there' bore a strong resemblance to the Italian 'I cigni de Balaka' by Al Bano. At the time, the King of Pop was fined £4 million ($5.2 million) for plagiarism. However, after several talks between the parties, the two artists confirmed that the two songs were not related and that the similarity between them was due to the simplicity of their musical structure.

Another case of plagiarism concerned the track 'Wanna be startin' somethin'' (1982) from his legendary album 'Thriller.' The famous passage "Mama Ko, Mamasa, Mamakossa" is actually the chorus of the song 'Soul Makossa' (1972), by Cameroonian singer Manu Dibango. The latter therefore initiated proceedings to recover the rights to the song.

In the end, an amicable agreement was reached between the two parties, and Manu Dibango received two million French francs. It was next to nothing when you consider the number of albums Michael Jackson sold. 'Thriller' has at least 60 million copies circulating worldwide...

'Wonderwall,' one of the biggest hits of the English group, turned out to be an alleged copy of 'Bonnie and Clyde' - or at least the guitar riff was very similar to the composition of Serge Gainsbourg.

Curiously, at a later point, Oasis would accuse Green Day of having taken too much inspiration from their song to create 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams.'

But this song is not the only one for which the English group has been accused of plagiarism and, on some occasions, had to pay large sums of money.

The Gallagher brothers were also accused of plagiarism for their title 'Shakermaker' (1994). The New Seekers, an Australian group of the 70s, had found similarities between the Oasis track and its song 'I'd Like to Teach the World To Sing.' At the end of the trial, the English band had to pay the sum of 500,000 dollars to the plaintiffs.

Some fans have pointed out that there is a strong resemblance between Olivia Rodrigo's song 'Good for u' and Paramore's song 'Misery Business.' In this case, the song did not go to trial, as according to the BBC, the singer and the band's former guitarist were credited as co-authors of the track. The news was later confirmed by Warner Chappell Music, Paramore's publishing company.

Courtney Love also accused the Disney star of plagiarizing the cover of her band Hole's 'Live Through This' (1994) album. To promote her virtual concert 'Sour Prom,' the young singer had indeed posted on her social media a photo that was similar to that of Hole's album. Olivia Rodrigo ultimately responded to the accusations saying she admired the band.

Do you remember 'Blurred Lines'? Well, the 2013 hit that shot Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke to fame was sued for containing material from Marvin Gaye's 1977 song 'Got to give it up.'

A Los Angeles court ordered them to pay $7.3 million, which Vanity Fair says is the highest fine ever imposed for copyright infringement in the music industry!

You've probably heard Pitbull's hit 'El Taxi,' a song that was at the top of the charts a few years ago. Sofia Vergara even danced to the song at the Grammys! However, its author was accused of plagiarism, of having borrowed from the song 'Murder She Wrote,' by Chaka Demus & Pliers, released in 1992.

In reality, there was no official accusation, but the Jamaican band's fans held a trial-by-media, complaining on social media.

'Creep' is probably one of Radiohead's most iconic hits. However, we regret to inform you that this song is allegedly plagiarized from 'The Air That I Breathe,' a single written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood. After they proved their case, they had to be included as co-authors of the hit, obviously getting part of the profits for 'Creep.'

But the story does not end there. In 2018, Radiohead, in turn, accused singer Lana del Rey of plagiarizing 'Creep' with her track 'Get Free.' They demanded 100% of the rights to the song, which Lana del Rey refused.

American photographer David LaChapelle has sued Rihanna for allegedly copying eight of his images in the S&M video. According to the photographer, the colors, theme, lighting, and decor were his and he demanded $1 million. According to the BBC, the singer reached an out-of-court settlement with the photographer, although the amount was not disclosed.

Rihanna has also been accused of reproducing an installation by designer James Clar in the music video for her song 'Rockstar 101.' But in December 2022, the Paris Criminal Court finally ruled in favor of the American star, finding that there were more dissimilarities than similarities.

The Beatles themselves were not spared plagiarism lawsuits. In their case, it was the song 'Come Together' that was accused of copying parts of the song 'You Can't Catch Me' by Chuck Berry.

According to Vanity Fair, the two parties reached an amicable agreement that allowed them to turn the page.