Beyoncé, Jay Z and producer Timbaland have reportedly been sued over Beyoncé hit single ‘Drunk in Love’ by a Hungarian singer who claimed the artists used one of her songs without permission.
The lawsuit filed by singer Monika Miczura, aka Mitsou, maintained that her 1995 song ‘Bajba, Bajba Pelem’ was used for the first 13 seconds of the Beyoncé track. According to TMZ, she is now seeking damages and has requested that a judge prohibit the song from being played until her voice is removed.
Mitsou said her voice was digitally manipulated using Auto-Tune and various edits for the Beyoncé version. She added that her song is about hopelessness yet Beyoncé used it “to evoke foreign eroticism alongside the sexually intense lyrics”.
‘Drunk In Love’ was one of two singles released by Columbia Records from Beyoncé’s surprise self-titled album in 2013. Beyoncé and husband Jay Z both feature on the track and performed it together at the 56th annual Grammy Awards in January. The song has also been remixed and covered by several artists including Kanye West.
Last week, a lawsuit claiming that Jay Z violated copyright by sampling a single syllable on his 2009 hit song with Rihanna, ‘Run This Town’, was dismissed by New York federal judge Lewis Kaplan. Record label TufAmerica had claimed that Jay Z and his record company sampled an “oh” from an older recording by Eddie Bo entitled ‘Hook & Sling Part 1’.