Six Popular Nigerian Singers Who Have Been Accused Of ‘Stealing’ Songs

Not all Nigerian singers are free of Copyright violations as some of them at some point have been accused of stealing other people’s intellectual work.

Naija News in this article takes a look at some top Nigerian singers whose reputations have been dragged through the dirt after they were accused of stealing songs written by other people.

1. Wizkid: In December 2019, Nigerian Afrobeats artiste Ayodeji Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, was slammed with a ₦30 million lawsuit over copyright infringement by veteran singer, Tony Tetuila.

In the lawsuit, Tony claimed that Wizkid and DJ Tunes stole content from his “Fefe N’efe” track and used it in their “Gbese” track.

2. Peter Okoye: In May 2018, Peter Okoye, was accused by singer, Henry Knight, of copying and remaking his song ‘Ebeano’ without proper credit.

In a post shared on Instagram, Henry expressed his grievances as he accused Peter of content theft.

Part of the post read: “Dear Peter okoye @peterpsquare I released a song called Ebano on the 8th of August 2015 with hard-earned money which was produced by TeeMode, you copied the hook of the song without any form of royalty that is required or any form of credit to me.”

3. 2face Idibia: This was the biggest of all song theft cases in Nigerian music history.

The problem of copyright violation between Plantashun Boiz members 2face and Blackface is no news in the entertainment industry. The hit song ‘African Queen,’ for which 2face received fame, was said to have been composed by Blackface. However, 2face later paid Blackface royalties from the song.

Blackface later accused the legendary singer of also denying him credit for the song ‘Let Somebody Love You’ which they both wrote together in their days as Plantashun Boiz.

4. Tiwa Savage: In 2018, an upcoming singer, Danny Young accused female sensational singer, Tiwa Savage of stealing his song.

He slammed Tiwa Savage a N205 Million lawsuit for stealing lyrics of his 2009 Single “Oju Tiwon”.

5. Tekno: In 2018, after the release of his hit song “Jogodo” which attracted several accolades. A Nigerian music group called Mad Melon and Mountain Black accused Tekno of sampling their song “Danfo Drive” without permission.

A report by Tribune alleged that Tekno known for his peaceful nature apologised to the ‘Danfo Drivers’ and gave them a substantial amount of money as compensation.

6. Davido: David Adeleke popularly called Davido was accused of copyright infringement in 2013 by an up-and-coming artist, Password, who claimed he stole the premise and lyrics of the song “Gobe.”

Password claimed he had initially released Gobe in 2011 but didn’t make a hit. Multiple sources online alleged that Davido later bought the song from Password for 500 thousand Naira.

This article was originally published on Naija News