The move is part of a court case in Brazil, with Geraes having launched legal action against Adele. Geraes claims Mulheres, created for the Brazilian singer Martinho da Vila, has been plagiarised and is pushing for US$160,000 ($277,950) and a song-writing credit on Adele’s track, according to AFP.
Fredimio Trotta, his lawyer, said the case would be a “landmark for Brazilian music”, which he claimed “has often been copied to compose successful international hits”.
Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music have not commented on the case.
It is not the first time that Adele’s track has been embroiled in a plagiarism row. In 2015, Turkish music fans claimed it had striking similarities to Acilara Tutunmak, a 1985 release by singer Ahmet Kaya.
Other copycat spats in music
Marvin Gaye v Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams (2014)
- Pharrell and Thicke were ordered to pay Gaye’s estate US$5 million (NZ$8.7m) and half of all future royalties following claims that their 2013 hit Blurred Lines copied from Gaye’s 1977 song, Got to Give It Up.
Marvin Gaye v Ed Sheeran (2016 & 2018)
Queen and David Bowie v Vanilla Ice (1990)
- Queen and David Bowie alleged that the 1989 release Ice Ice Baby was remarkably similar to their joint track Under Pressure. The site was settled out of court and Vanilla Ice co-credited the British stars on the song.
There have been a number of prominent plagiarism cases in recent years, with the British star Ed Sheeran appearing in court in both the US and UK over claims that his tracks borrowed from others.
After winning a 2022 case in London over the song Shape of You, Sheeran said in a video message to fans: “There’s only so many notes and very few chords in pop music, coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 are being released every day on Spotify.
“That’s 22 million songs a year – and there’s only 12 notes that are available. I hope that this ruling means that in the future baseless claims can be avoided.”
– Additional reporting by NZ Herald.
