A British musician is appealing to Canadian singers The Weeknd and Belly and Canadian music producer Jason Quenneville to “do the right thing.”
Brian Clover claims The Weeknd’s 2016 Starboy track “A Lonely Night” rips off part of “I Need to Love,” a 2004 song he co-wrote with Sonic Religion bandmates Billy Smith and Scott McCulloch.
In addition to The Weeknd, Belly (whose real name is Ahmad Balshe), and Quenneville, “A Lonely Night” is credited to Swedish songwriters Max Martin, Peter Svensson, Savan Kotecha and Ali Payami.
“We want one of the writers to do the right thing, show some integrity and say, ‘Look, it was me,’” Clover told iHeartRadio.ca.
Clover (pictured above) said he, Smith and McCulloch signed a publishing deal in 2005 with Big Life Management and “I Need to Love” was one of the tracks the company tried to find a home for.
In 2009, Big Life’s catalogue was taken over by Universal Music.
“They were confident our song would get recorded by an artist,” Clover recalled. But, Universal relinquished the rights to “I Need to Love” in November 2016.
Seven months later, Clover was in a Topman store when he heard The Weeknd’s “A Lonely Night.”
“I could not believe it. I cannot articulate how I felt,” he said.
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Clover said the songwriting trio wrote a letter to The Weeknd’s Ottawa-raised managers Wassim ‘Sal’ Slaiby and Amir ‘Cash’ Esmailian. “We said we don’t know how this has happened but can we please find a solution to the matter,” he recalled.
Clover said Stuart Prager, a New York lawyer representing The Weeknd, denied there was any similarity between the songs but offered the songwriters the equivalent of about $85,000 CAD.
“He asked what hits we have had and I said none. He laughed down the phone at me,” Clover alleged, “saying ‘Why would The Weeknd want to use one of your songs?’”
Prager did not respond to an iHeartRadio.ca request for comment.
In a letter to The Weeknd’s record company, dated March 23, 2018, London-based Simons Rodkin Solicitors LLP said “A Lonely Night” bears “more than a striking and substantial similarity” to “I Need to Love.”
“It is virtually identical and would be indistinguishable to a layman,” the letter reads. “The melody of the chorus … is almost identical in relative pitch to the melody.”
The Pre-Action Protocol – essentially a formal threat of one’s willingness to file a civil suit – included a report from Chandler & Siddell Musicologists, which opined that there is “sufficient musical evidence to support a potential claim of infringement.”
Contrary to some media reports, no lawsuit has been filed. None of the allegations have been tested in court.
Clover said he and his fellow songwriters are seeking more than only a share of royalties. “We want the recognition for writing a song on a Grammy-winning album,” he said. “Then we can get on with our careers.”
Listen below to a mash-up of the two songs (Updated 4/4/2019):