Katy Perry celebrated the end of an eight-year legal drama in Las Vegas on Friday night.
While performing her hit “Dark Horse” in her residency show, the pop star changed the lyrics “So just be sure before you give it up to me” to “So just be sure before you take me to court ‘cause I’m a Scorpio, b**ch!”
On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a $2.8 million copyright infringement verdict against Perry will not be reinstated. In a 3-0 vote, the judges upheld a lower court judge’s decision to overturn a $2.8 million U.S. verdict against Perry in a copyright infringement case.
Marcus Gray (who raps as Flame) sued Perry and her "Dark Horse" co-writers – including Canada's Henry Walter – in 2014, alleging that the song stole from his track "Joyful Noise." Gray complained his song’s religious message was “irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in 'Dark Horse.’”
A jury unanimously sided with Gray in 2019 but a judge later set aside the verdict.
“The portion of the ‘Joyful Noise’ ostinato that overlaps with the ‘Dark Horse’ ostinato consists of a manifestly conventional arrangement of musical building blocks,” read the ruling. “Allowing a copyright over this material would essentially amount to allowing an improper monopoly over two-note pitch sequences or even the minor scale itself.”
“Dark Horse” was the third single from Perry’s album Prism and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and won Single of the Year at the American Music Awards.
@richie.ml don’t mess with a triple scorpio #greenscreenvideo #TheAdamProject #TurboTaxAlphorn #SchickAsks #foryou #fyp #katyperry @katyperry ♬ original sound - Richie