NEW YORK: A Jamaican artist has filed a $300 million lawsuit against pop star Miley Cyrus over her 2013 hit “We Can’t Stop,” saying a key lyric was snatched from him.
On the track about exploring sexual and other personal freedom, Cyrus sings, “And we can’t stop / We run things, things don’t run we / Don’t take nothing from nobody.”
Flourgon, a Jamaican dancehall artist who enjoyed hits in the 1980s and 1990s, said the turn of phrase was taken from his 1988 song “We Run Things,” whose lyrics include, “We run things / Things no run we.”
Flourgon, whose real name is Michael May, is seeking $300 million from Cyrus, her label Sony Music and her team of songwriters and musicians — a highly ambitious sum that is more than the pop star’s estimated net worth.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a federal court in New York, said the lyrics belonged “distinctly” to Flourgon with “roots in Jamaican Patois with its own unique phraseology and linguistic combinations that, when translated into English, is not grammatically correct.”
Flourgon said Cyrus built her career off the single, noting that it came out around the time that the former star of the Disney series “Hannah Montana” was adopting an edgier, more sexualized public persona.
Cyrus “dramatically changed her style of dress and personal vocalizations to reflect the grittiness, aggression and sultriness associated with US-based hip-hop, R&B, urban and Caribbean music,” the lawsuit said.
The 25-year-old singer did not immediately respond to the lawsuit, which also seeks to prevent her from further performances of “We Can’t Stop.”
The pop starlet has faced accusations in the past of appropriating black culture, especially when she twerked her behind against singer Robin Thicke at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2013.
“We Can’t Stop” coincidentally only reached number two on the US singles chart because it was held back by Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” which was targeted in a landmark lawsuit.
Thicke and co-writer Pharrell Williams were ordered to pay more than $7 million to the estate of Marvin Gaye after a jury found similarities to his song “Got to Give It Up.”
But a judge recently rejected a lawsuit revolving around lyrics against Taylor Swift, saying that the words in her song “Shake It Off” were too banal for copyright infringement.
Jamaican singer sues Miley Cyrus for $300 million over lyric
Jamaican singer sues Miley Cyrus for $300 million over lyric
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
