George Michael’s estate has accused Tory Lanez of using an “unauthorised sample” of ‘Careless Whisper’.
The 29-year-old rapper was recently accused by Madonna of ripping off her 1985 hit ‘Into The Groove’ after she called him out for the “illegal” interpolation of her track on ‘Pluto’s Last Comet’ from his LP ‘Alone at Prom’.
The 63-year-old music legend wrote: “Read your messages [f]or illegal usage of my song get into the groove! (sic)”
And now, the estate of the late pop legend is taking action to remove Lanez’s song ‘Enchanted Waterfall’ – which also features on ‘Alone at Prom’ – from streaming platforms after they “declined permission” for him to use the sample last summer.
‘Careless Whisper’ was co-written with George’s Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley and released in 1984.
A statement issued to Variety on behalf of the estate and songwriter Andrew read: “It was brought to our attention that the song ‘Enchanted Waterfall’ by the artist Tory Lanez incorporated an unauthorised sample of ‘Careless Whisper’ written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley … requested 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 unauthorised use of any songs within the catalogues of George Michael and/or Andrew Ridgeley.”
Lanez’s song has already been removed from Spotify.