Pop star and former One Path member Zayn Malik is hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over his hit ‘Higher.’
On Wednesday, a lawsuit filed with the US District Courtroom for the Central District of California alleges that British pop star and former One Path member Zayn Malik’s hit “Higher” resulted from “blatant copying” of a lesser-known observe launched three years earlier.
The track Malik stands accused of copying, “Any person Tonight,” was written and carried out by musician and songwriter Patrick Simmons (to not be confused with the Doobie Brothers’ Patrick Simmons) beneath the stage identify Havyn. The submitting alleges that Malik copied “quite a few important compositional components” of “Any person Tonight,” launched in 2018.
“With out blatant copying, Zayn’s ‘Higher’ would by no means have come to exist in its current type or turn into an enormous worldwide success,” alleges the criticism, filed on behalf of Simmons’ firm, Formal Leisure LLC.
The criticism says that in 2020, Simmons employed music promotion company Fashionable Music Advertising and marketing (MMM) to advertise his track “Individuals Change” when Jonah Rindner, a consultant on the firm, informed Simmons that they’d promote “Any person Tonight” freed from cost, contemplating it to be Simmons’ finest work.
That October, Simmons allegedly discovered by means of Rindner that MMM additionally promoted Zayn’s “Higher,” launched a month prior. Simmons says he despatched a stop and desist letter to Sony in December 2020, to which the corporate “expressly (denied) any infringement claims referring to the infringing work.”
Defendants named within the lawsuit embody Zayn — whose actual identify is Zain Malik — in addition to Sony Music Leisure, which owns RCA Data, the label beneath which Malik launched “Higher,” and 5 individuals credited as songwriters on the observe.
David Debrandon Brown (beneath the moniker Fortunate Daye), Dustin “DAB” Bowie, Michael McGregor, Cole Citrenbaum, and Philip von Boch Scully, who can be listed as producer. The criticism seeks damages and earnings that the defendants constituted of “Higher,” which has over 150 million streams on Spotify.
“Higher” was the primary single from Zayn’s third solo album, “No person is Listening,” following his departure from One Path. The track reached No. 89 on the US Billboard Sizzling 100 and No. 58 on the UK Singles chart.
As Havyn, Simmons has had average musical success, with “Any person Tonight” as his second-most common observe at 132,000 streams on Spotify, behind “Individuals Change” at 358,000.