Demi Lovato has been slapped with a serious copyright infringement lawsuit stemming for her 2015 bonus track “Stars” from her album “Confident.” Band Sleigh Bells is suing Demi Lovato for allegedly ripping off their song “Infinity Guitars” to create her “Stars” track, TMZ reports.
Sleigh Bells alleges that Demi Lovato’s song has “virtually identical content” to their track and now want both a cut of her profits and an injunction to prevent her song from being played in the future. According to the lawsuit, “The combination of the hand claps and bass drum, structured as 3 quarter beats and a rest … is at least substantially similar in both works.”
“Infinity Guitars” was a huge hit and even made Rolling Stone’s list of top songs of the year back in 2010. The song was also licensed to Samsung for use in a commercial. The lawsuit, which was filed in California federal court on Monday, names Demi Lovato and UMG Recordings as defendants, as well as producers Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub.
Demi Lovato has not yet commented on the lawsuit. Back in November of 2015 when “Confident” was released, Sleigh Bells tweeted, “Demi Lovato flattered you guys sampled Infinity Guitars & Riot Rhythm for ‘Stars’ but we were not contacted. Gotta clear those.”
In response, producers of the song stated “We did not use any samples in Demi Lovato’s song Stars. Demi was also not involved with the production. She only wrote top line.”
It looks like Demi Lovato might not be able to get out of this lawsuit and, if she loses the case, will be forced to shell out major bucks for the copyright infringement. The widespread critical claim of “Infinity Guitars,” coupled with the fact that it was featured in a Samsung commercial and made the best songs of the year list by Rolling Stone makes it pretty unlikely that either she or her team had never heard of the song.
The songs are noticeably similar; the lawsuit puts it best by saying “[the similarities] transcend the realm of coincidence.”
Let’s hope she brings is some major cash on her “Future Now” Tour with Nick Jonas this year or else this pop star might be singing the blues on her next album.
What do you think—did Demi Lovato and her producers copy the Sleigh Bells’ “Infinity Guitars” song? Do you think the tracks are too similar? Sound off in the comments below!
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