George Michael’s estate wants ‘Careless Whisper’ sample taken off Tory Lanez’s album
The late singer's estate claims Lanez's used the sample despite being denied upon request last year.
The estate of late singer/songwriter George Michael has taken action against Tory Lanez and his song “Enchanted Waterfall.” The estate claims that the song uses an unauthorized element of Michael’s song, “Careless Whisper.”
“Enchanted Waterfall” is on Lanez’s 2021 album Alone At Prom. In the song, Lanez seemingly interpolates the melody and cadence from the chorus of Michael’s 1984 hit single, “Careless Whisper.” The late performer wrote the song with Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley as both a solo single and the closing track for the duo’s sophomore album, Make It Big.
Michael’s estate, also speaking on Ridgeley’s behalf, says Lanez used the sample without consent, as reported by Variety.
“It was brought to our attention that the song ‘Enchanted Waterfall’ by the artist Tory Lanez incorporated an unauthorized sample of ‘Careless Whisper’ written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley,” the statement read.
It continued, saying that Lanez’ “requested permission for this use had been declined in June 2021 so we took immediate action on behalf of the writers, in collaboration with our publishers Warner Chappell Music, to prevent further exploitation as we will not tolerate any unauthorized use of any songs within the catalogs of George Michael and/or Andrew Ridgeley.”
Lanez released “Enchanted Waterfall” as a single in December 2021, a week after Alone at Prom hit streaming services. But once the Michael estate took action, “Enchanted Waterfall” was removed from Spotify. However, the music video is still available on YouTube and the song continues to stream on Apple Music and Tidal.
This is not the first time Lanez was accused of using someone else’s music without permission for Alone at Prom. Also in December, Madonna accused Lanez of using a sample of “Into the Groove” for his song “Pluto’s Last Comet.” She commented on one of Lanez’s Instagram posts with the message, “Read your messages [for] illegal usage of my song get into the groove!”
Through a representative, the pop legend repeated the claim to Rolling Stone.
“I am tired of being taken advantage of and I mean business,” she told the outlet.
Madonna released “Into the Groove” in 1985. She co-wrote the song with Stephen Bray and it reached number one on the Billboard Dance chart.
The music of “Pluto’s Last Comet” bears a significant resemblance to the main instrumentation of “Into The Groove.” Lanez’s song remains available on Spotify and other streaming services.
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