4 Famous Singers Accused of Plagiarism This Summer

There’s something in the air this summer, or maybe we’re just running out of ideas for original music, but this summer alone at least 4 major artists have already been accused of plagiarism or copyright infringement for their songs.

The latest singer to be sued for violating copyright is Ariana Grande. Her 2015 song “One Last Time” has been accused of being too similar to the song “Takes All Night”, according to the writer of the song, Alex Greggs. Because of the high degree of similarity of Grande’s song to Gregg’s composition (interpreted by Skye Stevens), Gregg has filed suit for $150 million, mentioning Grande, David Guetta (who composed the song in question), and Universal Music.

Just days before, Demi Lovato was accused of plagiarism for her song “Stars”. The indie rock band known as Sleigh Bells (Derek Miller and Sydney Alexis Krauss) alleges that it violates intellectual property rights by sampling from their song “Infinity Guitars” without permission. The band is suing Lovato and Universal Music for $150,000 per infringement.

Earlier this month, Katy Perry received criticism for the music video for her song “Rise”, although no formal accusations have been made. Apparently the video, directed by Paul Gore, bears a striking resemblance to a previous video for Olivia Somerlyn’s “Parachute” video. However, even the director of Somerlyn’s video seems to think it’s just a coincidence: “I’m sure [Gore] wouldn’t knowingly copy anything. It’s just a parachute.”

Finally, back in June, Ed Sheeran was sued for $20 million for copyright infringement by HoloSongs and its songwriters, Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard. They claim that Sheeran’s song “Photograph” was plagiarized from their song “Amazing”, stating that the song has “verbatim, note-for-note similarities.” They have the right lawyer on their team to win the suit: Richard Busch, who was able to win a similar case on behalf of Marvin Gaye’s family against Robin Thicke for his hit song “Blurred Lines”.