In 1987, “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley was one of the hottest hits on Billboard, playing on radio stations across the nation and all day long on MTV when they still played music videos. Rickrolling came along about 20 years later when an internet sensation began of pranking people with the song in the most unexpected places, but today it’s no prank that Astley is suing Yung Gravy over the imitation of his voice.
According to Billboard, Astley filed a suit on Thursday in an L.A. court that claims Gravy’s 2022 breakout hit “Betty (Get Money)” violates “the singer’s so-called right of publicity” because the singer in the “Never Gonna Give You Up” interpolation in the song sounds just like Astley. In the court documents, Astley’s lawyer noted, “In an effort to capitalize off of the immense popularity and goodwill of Mr. Astley, defendants … conspired to include a deliberate and nearly indistinguishable imitation of Mr. Astley’s voice throughout the song, the public could not tell the difference. The imitation of Mr. Astley’s voice was so successful the public believed it was actually Mr. Astley singing.”
from We Got This Covered https://ift.tt/b7nV305
