Justin Bieber and Usher Slapped With $10 Million Lawsuit Over 'Somebody to Love'

The two superstars are being sued by artist De
Rico and songwriter Mareio Overton for
copyright infringement.
It's now
already
been years
since Justin
Bieber and
his
mentor,
Usher,
released
the remix
version of
the track
"Somebody
to Love",
for the former's 2011 album " Never Say Never
- The Remixes" and the latter's 2010 EP
" Versus". The two artists are now facing a $10
million copyright infringement lawsuit over
their hit dance track collaboration.
R'n'B singer Devin Copeland a.k.a. De Rico and
songwriter Mareio Overton filed the lawsuit in
a U.S. District court in eastern Virginia on
Thursday, May 2, claiming they were the
originators of "Somebody to Love", having
written the song back in 2008 and eventually
releasing it on De Rico's album "My Story II".
Their song reportedly found its way to Usher
by way of a promoter who hooked the two
with music talent scouting company Sangreel
Media who apparently had exposed De Rico's
album to the Grammy Award winner.
The pair also claimed they went as far as
getting in touch with Usher's mom/manager
Jonetta Patton, who allegedly said Usher had
already listened to De Rico's album and had
expressed interest in bringing the singer along
with him on his tour. Although Usher did not
record the song, his demo version on YouTube
along with Bieber's recording of it in his " My
World 2.0 " album is said to be speaking
volumes as to how much they liked the single.
Besides the same song title, the lawsuit cites
other similarities between the original and the
copied version such as the time signature and
chorus hook, as well as the chords, the call
and response passages at similar points in the
song, but most especially the common use of
one measure of strategic silence just prior to
or at the beginning of the chorus.