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Brazilian Judge Orders Global Removal of Adele’s Song Over Plagiarism Suit
Global music icon Adele is at the center of a legal storm after a Brazilian court ordered her 2015 song Million Years Ago to be removed from streaming platforms worldwide.
A judge in Rio de Janeiro’s 6th Commercial Court reportedly issued a preliminary injunction last week instructing Sony Brazil and Universal Music Brazil to stop “immediately and globally…using, reproducing, editing, distributing or commercializing the song…by any modality, means, physical or digital support, streaming or sharing platform.”
The injunction, which carries an $8,000 fine for each “act of non-compliance” was granted following a claim by composer Toninho Geraes accusing Adele and her co-writer of plagiarizing his song Mulheres, popularized by Martinho Da Vila.
The suit seeks lost royalties, US$160,000 in moral damages, plus songwriting credit on Adele’s track.
Representatives for the two companies have not yet commented on the injunction, which remains subject to their appeal.
Geraes’ attorney, meanwhile, heralded the interim order as “a landmark for Brazilian music, which…has often been copied to compose successful international hits” and predicted that “International producers and artists who…have Brazilian music ‘on their radar’ for possible parasitic use will think twice”, and has pledged his further efforts to ensure that Adele’s song is kept off radio, TV, and streaming services while the plagiarism litigation, filed in 2021, remains pending.
This is not the first time Million Years Ago has been subject to criticism. Following its release in 2015, Turkish music fans claimed similarity to a 1985 song by Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya called Acilara Tutunmak (Clinging to Pain), though no complaint was ever filed prior to Kaya’s death.
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