A jury in Los Angeles decided on Monday that Katy Perry’s 2013 hit “Dark Horse” copied from the 2007 rap track “Joyful Noise” by Christian act Flame.
Among those found liable is Canada’s Henry Walter, who co-wrote and co-produced the “Dark Horse.” The Nova Scotia native is known professionally as Cirkut.
The song’s other writers are Perry, Jordan Houston (who appears on the track as Juicy J), Lukas Gottwald, Sarah Hudson and Max Martin. The third single from Prism earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and won Single of the Year at the American Music Awards.
In Canada, “Dark Horse” was Perry’s 10th song to top the singles chart.
“Joyful Noise” appears on Our World: Redeemed, which was nominated as Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album.
The unanimous verdict by the nine-member jury came five years after singer Marcus Gray and two co-writers sued for copyright infringement. Perry was not in the courtroom to hear the decision.
Gray, who wrote “Joyful Noise” with Emanuel Lambert and Chike Ojukwu, had argued the two songs were identical except “Dark Horse” was 10 beats-per-minute slower and a step higher in pitch.
Perry’s lawyer countered that the song used the “basic building blocks of music.”
In the lawsuit he filed in 2014, the Missouri artist claimed “the devoutly religious message of 'Joyful Noise' has been irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in 'Dark Horse.’”
Perry and her co-defendants testified that they had never heard the Flame song and did not listen to Christian music. (Perry launched her music career as a Christian singer under her real name, Katy Hudson, and released a Christian rock album in 2001.) But, the jury found that “Joyful Noise” had been distributed enough that it was possible the defendants had heard it.
The penalty phase of the trial begins Tuesday so the jury can determine how much money the plaintiffs are entitled to receive.