A federal judge has handed a victory to Lizzo, the Grammy-winning R&B and pop star, in a bitter fight over copyright and songwriting credit in Lizzo’s breakthrough hit, “Truth Hurts.”The dispute emerged last fall, when two songwriting brothers, Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, said that Lizzo had taken the hook of “Truth Hurts” — a line about the results of a DNA test, which originated in a viral tweet by someone else — from another song, called “Healthy,” that Lizzo wrote with the Raisens months earlier as part of a songwriting session. With “Truth Hurts” shaping up as a monster hit — it spent a total of seven weeks at No. 1 — and a major Grammy contender, their fight quickly headed to the courts. Lizzo sought a declaration that the Raisens and another writer, Yves Rothman, had no part in writing “Truth Hurts.” In response, those writers contended that “Truth Hurts” was derived from “Healthy,” and that they are co-owners of “Truth Hurts” and therefore are owed a share of its royalties and profits. Lizzo’s lawyer, Cynthia S. Arato, called that demand “opportunistic and legally bankrupt.”

Source: New York Times August 17, 2020 13:52 UTC