Demi Lovato has been sued by pop music duo Sleigh Bells for allegedly sampling their "Infinity Guitars" hit.
Vocalist Alexis Krauss and guitarist Derek Miller filed a complaint in California federal court on Monday, alleging "Stars," the bonus track on Lovato’s Confident album, has “virtually identicalcontent” to the critically acclaimed "Infinity Guitars" from their 2010 debut album Treats.
In papers obtained by Billboard, Krauss and Miller state: “A comparison of the two songs reveals that, at the very least, the combination of the hand claps and bass drum, structured as 3 quarter beats and a rest, with the bass drum providing a counter-rhythm to the hand claps, is at least substantially similar in both works. This infringing material repeats throughout the Defendants’ song.”
The plaintiffs also allege that “signal decay and other sonic signatures” on the two tunes “transcend the realm of coincidence.”
Sleigh Bells are seeking an unspecified amount in profits from Lovato’s track and they have also filed for an injunction to stop future airplay.
The defendants named in the lawsuit are Lovato, UMG Recordings and producers Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub, who previously denied infringement last November, when Sleigh Bells took to Twitter to note the similarities between the two songs.
“@ddlovato flattered you guys sampled Infinity Guitars & Riot Rhythm for Stars but we were not contacted. Gotta clear those,” they wrote at the time.
While the pop star did not respond to the accusations, co-writers Falk and Yacoub denied they sampled the song, and released a statement which read: “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.”
