een dream nightmare Justin Bieber just can’t catch a break it seems.
Now he can add an expensive lawsuit to all the bad press he’s accumulated over the past few months like the cherry on top of it all.
A cherry that costs $10 million.
The singer and his mentor/collaborator Usher are being slapped with a lawsuit that was filed in U.S. District Court in Virginia yesterday over copyright infringements regarding their hit, “Somebody to Love.”
R&B singer and songwriter Devin Copeland (better known in your iTunes as De Rico) and Mareio Overton who say they wrote “Somebody to Love” in 2008, releasing it on De Rico’s album My Story II.
The lawsuit cites similarities between the two tracks such as time signature, chorus hook, and similar chords.
They claim they have two connections close to Usher as proof he was exposed to it and knowingly ripped it off—a promoter who was in touch with a music talent scouting company that’s worked with Usher, and Usher’s mom Jonetta Patton who sometimes manages him.
After recording a demo of it, Usher filed it away. He later gave it to Justin to record and include on his album My World 2.0.
While the album title names are too close for comfort (My Story II vs. My World 2.0), someone wailing that they want somebody to love sounds like every pop song on the radio ever. Even the tone of both tracks is different—De Rico’s is more a slow jam compared to Justin’s dancier version.
The song has been out for three years now and only now they’re hearing the supposed similarities? It all sounds more suspicious than Auto-Tune.
