LADY GAGA FACES MASSIVE SUIT FROM SONGWRITER
A musician songwriter and working claims Lady Gaga lifted key elements of a song he released in 2012 for her hit from her film A Star Is Born, Shallow. Steve Ronsen says his 2012 song Almost, which he posted to Soundcloud, had a three-note melody - G, A, B - which Lady Gaga, 33, replicated for the song, which was hit the top of the charts this past March in the wake of her memorable performance at the Oscars with co-star Bradley Cooper. Ronsen, who’s represented by lawyer Mark D. Shirian, have requested a settlement asking for ‘millions and millions’ in restitution, sources told Page
Six, adding that those in Gaga’s inner circle are dismissing the request as a ‘brazen shakedown.’
Gaga’s lawyer, Orin Snyder, told the outlet that ‘Ronsen and his lawyer are trying to make easy money off the back of a successful artist.’
He praised Gaga for ‘for having the courage and integrity to stand up on behalf of successful artists who find themselves on the receiving end of such’ allegations. Snyder said that if the Telephone singer is sued, she ‘will fight it vigorously and will prevail.’
The singer’s legal team said that three-note melody is common and has been heard in multiple recordings dating back generations, including the 1978 Kansas song Dust In The Wind.
Shirian told the outlet in a statement that he provided to Gaga’s lawyers months ago ‘an official report from a renowned and respected musicologist and professor who determined that there are significant tempo, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic similarities between the two “hooks” of the songs at issue.’
Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, penned the song with Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt.
She told the Los Angeles Times in December the experience penning the song ‘was different from any other experience [she] had writing a song.
‘I was at the piano, the guys each had a guitar in their hands and we started coming up with lyrics and talking to each other,’ the Bad Romance singer said. ‘That’s really what the song is. It’s a conversation between a man and a woman. But we didn’t know that when we started.’ Shallow marked Gaga’s first number one hit since her 2011 anthem Born This Way.
The song was a smash with critics as well, as it won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and two Grammys this past awards season.