Adele Sued For Plagiarism, Song To Be Banned In One Country

A Brazilian composer has accused Adele of plagiarism and sued her, leading a judge to order the singer to take down one of her songs nationwide.

Toninho Geraes claimed in 2019 that Adele’s 2015 song “Million Years Ago” plagiarized from his own 1995 song “Mulheres.” The British artist co-wrote the hit song from her 25 album with Greg Kurstin.

Hit Adele Song May Get Banned

Although the plagiarism case and suing began in 2021, Geraes issued a new injunction demanding that Adele pull her song from all streaming services nationwide. The case is still ongoing, but this is just one new threat to Adele’s labels Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music.

This injunction also dealt an $8,000 fine “per act of non-compliance.” According to Agence France Presse, Geraes ordered this last Friday in a Rio De Janeiro court. The order told her labels to stop “immediately and globally, from using, reproducing, editing, distributing, or commercializing” Million Years Ago.

The song on YouTube has over 22 million views after Adele posted the video in 2019. Also, fans have streamed the song over 223 million times on Spotify.

Geraes originally sued Adele for $160,000 in damages for lost royalties, on top of wanting credit for writing the song. Since then, this case has been going on for five years.

Fredimio Trotta, Geraes’ attorney, spoke to AFP about his thoughts on the case. He talked about how he was against any international artists and producers who have Brazilian music “on their radar” for any “possible parasitic use.” Trotta also told any international plagiarizers to “think twice, given this decision.”

Interestingly, this wasn’t the only time that “Million Years Ago” was accused by international listeners accused of plagiarism. When the song came out in 2015, Turkish fans accused Adele of copying the 1985 song “Ac?lara Tutunmak” by Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya.

Nothing had come to pass with these accusations, since Kaya’s widow didn’t believe Adele copied her late husband’s song. Kaya died in 2000 in self-exile. This was after Turkish authorities persecuted him, making him flee to France and die of a heart attack.

If you’re skeptical about these plagiarism claims, you can check out some of the YouTube videos comparing Adele and Geraes’ songs. After taking a listen, it’s clear that the compositions are strikingly similar.