Tory Lanez is once again in trouble. The Canadian crooner, who’s currently enveloped in a foreclosure lawsuit and a felony assault case, is now being accused of plagiarism by the family of the late pop star George Michael.
George Michael’s estate accused Lanez of ripping off the singer’s legendary hit “Careless Whisper” for his song “Enchanted Waterfall,” the opener to his 2021 eighties-inspired album Alone At Prom. In a statement shared by Variety, the estate said they’d denied Lanez the right to use the song for his album when his team asked in June of 2021, but he apparently incorporated an unauthorized sample of the track anyway.
“It was brought to our attention that the song ‘Enchanted Waterfall’ by the artist Tory Lanez incorporated an unauthorized sample of ‘Careless Whisper’ written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley,” the statement read. “[R]equested permission for this use had been declined in June 2021 so we took immediate action on behalf of the writers, in collaboration with our publishers Warner Chappell Music, to prevent further exploitation as we will not tolerate any unauthorized use of any songs within the catalogs of George Michael and/or Andrew Ridgeley.”
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A quick search on Spotify will find that “Enchanted Waterfall” has been taken down from Lanez’s official artist page, but a deeper search will find the track still appears on Spotify under the moniker “Tory Roadz.” The track currently has roughly 73,000 plays.
Elsewhere, the track still remains intact on Apple Music, while the music video remains on Lanez’s YouTube channel. Madonna had also previously accused Lanez of using her 1985 hit “Into the Groove” on his song “Pluto’s Last Comet,” later telling Rolling Stone, “I am tired of being taken advantage of and I mean business.”
Check out both “Careless Whisper” and “Enchanted Waterfall” below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DHBm1pk8IQ
