Brazilian samba composer on suing Adele for ‘Million Years Ago’: “It’s blatant plagiarism”

nme.com:

Adele over the song ‘Million Years Ago’ has described the track as “blatant plagiarism”.Last week, Toninho Geraes took Adele, the song’s co-writer Greg Kurstin and the Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony and Universal Music, to court in Rio De Janeiro.At the hearing on December 13, a judge ruled that the song, which appeared on the singer’s 2015 album 25, must be pulled worldwide and removed from streaming services.Geraes’ claim is that ‘Million Years Ago’ stole from his composition ‘Mulheres (Women)’, which was recorded by Martinho da Bila in 1995.

He is suing for lost royalties, $160,000 (£126,000) in moral damages and a songwriting credit on the Adele song.A second conciliation hearing was held on December 19, with Adele and Kurstin issued with Microsoft Teams links so that they could attend remotely, but The Guardian reports that Geraes’ lawyer Fredímio Biasotto Trotta said the defendants “didn’t show up”.Geraes has spoken to the newspaper about the case, explaining that he became aware of the alleged similarity between the compositions in 2020 when a friend pointed it out to him.“It’s blatant plagiarism,” he said. “I had no intention of making this story public, partly to protect Adele.

I don’t want a fight, but we tried to reach an out-of-court settlement, and they never even responded.”Despite the judge’s initial ruling that the song be taken down, it remains available to stream on all major platforms.

The judgement is also open to appeal, should the record companies or Adele or Kurstin wish.Geraes’ lawyers arranged for a band to record both ‘Million Years Ago’ and ‘Mulheres (Women)’ in the same tempo and key, which Trotta has since posted online.