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Ariana Grande lyric theft case seemingly settled
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 25 February 2015
A previously reported legal battle between UK-based Minder Music and the pop machine that is Ariana Grande has seemingly been settled. Which is no fun at all. Say what you like about Robin Thicke – and I think you all know what we like to say about Robin Thicke – but at least his petty and entertaining copyright battle has got to court.
As previously reported, Minder Music claimed that Grande’s hit ‘The Way’ stole a line from a song it represents, The Jimmy Castor Bunch track ‘Troglodyte’ from 1972. The offending Grande lyric was “What we gotta do right here is go back, back into time”, which Minder reckoned ripped off the ‘Troglodyte’ line: “What we’re gonna do right here is go back, way back, back into time”.
And to anyone who said “what the fuck?” to that claim, Minder Music added “the [two] songs’ phrases are strikingly similar in several ways, including but not limited to: nearly identical lyrics; similar enunciation speed with a fast and consistent pace for ‘what we gotta do right’ and a slightly slower pace for ‘here is go back’; and substantially similar placement at the same places in the respective compositions”.
So there you go. But it seems that that claim will not now be tested in court, because word has it that the whole matter has been settled. Terms, of course, are not known.