Jordan Vincent filed a complaint against Sam Smith and Armani for infringement of a 2015 track titled “Dancing with a Stranger”. Continue reading the article to learn more about the case.
Jordan Vincent sued “Stay With Me” singer Sam Smith and Fifth Harmony alum Armani for infringement of their song “Dancing With Stranger.”
According to Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles federal court filed a legal complaint on Friday, March 4.
Jordan Vincent Suing ”Dancing With A Stranger” For Infringement
Jordan Vincent sued Smith’s “Dancing With A Stranger” for infringement. A new lawsuit claims that Smith and Normani plagiarized elements of Vincent’s 2017 song “Dancing With Strangers” for their 2019 duet, “Dancing With a Stranger.”
According to the music magazine, songwriters Vincent, Christopher Miranda, and Rosco Banlaoi filed a complaint in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday.
The accused that the two songs have the “same” chorus, title, and composition. The chorus, which is the main artistic aspect of the song is sung over a nearly identical melody and musical composition.”
Furthermore, the complaint includes a comparison of the songs’ music videos, highlighting similarities in their staging.
“Both videos feature a girl’s interpretive dance performance alone in a minimalist studio, interlaced with shots of the male vocalist,” according to the complaint.
The girl dancing alone in the music is not an obvious theme for the song, so any idea that this resemblance is purely coincidental is dismissed.
Given the remarkable musical similarity between the songs, it is clear that the infringement on copyright composition and sound recording was intentional.
Jordan Vincent Original Song, Dancing With Stranger
Jordan Vincent’s original song, Dancing With Stranger was released in 2017. The song was written and performed by Jordan and was produced by Chris and Rosco.
And Smith and Normani released their song, Dancing With A Stranger in 2019 with a similar theme.
According to Stereogum, Smith, and Normani had access to Vincent’s song and music video via Thrive Records which was sent in 2015. The team was interested in using the song for another artist” but the deal never went through.
The suit claims that “another dubious coincidence is call sheet for plaintiff’s music video. It specifically mentioned the visual concept of mannequins coming to life.
Although this concept was not ultimately used in the plaintiff’s music video. Normani and the director of defendants’ music video discussed how they wanted to use porcelain statues coming to life for their music video in a 2019 interview.”
The likelihood of having such a high level of similarity is low unless it is planned.
Jordan Vincent Filed Copyright Issues Against Sam Smith And Normani
Sam Smith and Normani have not responded to copyright allegations of Jordan Vincent. This is Smith’s second high-profile case involving allegations of copyright infringement.
Smith confronted a similar case of copyright infringement in 2015. He settled a lawsuit with Tom Petty in 2015 over melodic similarities between Smith’s 2014 hit “Stay With Me” and Petty’s 1989 song “I Won’t Back Down.”
They made a deal that gave Petty and “I Won’t Back Down” co-writer Jeff Lynne a cut of Smith’s song royalties. Furthermore, the two were also given songwriting credits for the song.