Brazilian samba composer on suing Adele for ‘Million Years Ago’: “It’s blatant plagiarism”

The Brazilian samba composer who has sued Adele over the song ‘Million Years Ago’ has described the track as “blatant plagiarism”.

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Last week, Toninho Geraes took Adele, the song’s co-writer Greg Kurstin and the Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony and Universal Music, to court in Rio De Janeiro.

At the hearing on December 13, a judge ruled that the song, which appeared on the singer’s 2015 album 25, must be pulled worldwide and removed from streaming services.

Geraes’ claim is that ‘Million Years Ago’ stole from his composition ‘Mulheres (Women)’, which was recorded by Martinho da Bila in 1995. He is suing for lost royalties, $160,000 (£126,000) in moral damages and a songwriting credit on the Adele song.

A second conciliation hearing was held on December 19, with Adele and Kurstin issued with Microsoft Teams links so that they could attend remotely, but The Guardian reports that Geraes’ lawyer Fredímio Biasotto Trotta said the defendants “didn’t show up”.

Geraes has spoken to the newspaper about the case, explaining that he became aware of the alleged similarity between the compositions in 2020 when a friend pointed it out to him.

“It’s blatant plagiarism,” he said. “I had no intention of making this story public, partly to protect Adele. I don’t want a fight, but we tried to reach an out-of-court settlement, and they never even responded.”

Despite the judge’s initial ruling that the song be taken down, it remains available to stream on all major platforms. The judgement is also open to appeal, should the record companies or Adele or Kurstin wish.

Geraes’ lawyers arranged for a band to record both ‘Million Years Ago’ and ‘Mulheres (Women)’ in the same tempo and key, which Trotta has since posted online. The judge ruled that the video shows “a strong indication of almost complete melodic consonance”.

The defence lawyers claim the video was “manipulated” and presents a “series of discrepancies”, with changes being made to ‘Mulheres (Women)’ to “force” a similarity with ‘Million Years Ago’ (via The Guardian).

The Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony and Universal have been threatened with a fine of $8,000 (£6,300) as an “act of non-compliance” with the judge’s initial ruling, although it is unclear whether the fines will be enacted.

“It is a landmark for Brazilian music, which … has often been copied to compose successful international hits,” Trotta said after the December 13 ruling. He also said his firm would work to ensure that streaming services and radio and television broadcasters globally were made aware of the ruling.

This isn’t the first time that Adele has faced legal action over the ‘Million Years Ago’ song. Back in 2015, she was accused by music fans in Turkey of copying a song by Kurdish singer, Ahmet Kaya, called ‘Acilara Tutunmak (Clinging to Pain)’.

The song was originally shared in 1985. Kaya died in France in the year 2000, and his widow said she found it unlikely that Adele would have plagiarised the song.

In other Adele news, the ’30’ singer-songwriter recently completed her 50-weekend, 100-show stint at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Sin City, and has since told fans: “I don’t know when I’m going to perform again.”