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Artist News Business News Legal
Collage’s Uptown Funk song-theft litigation dismissed
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 16 April 2018
One of the lawsuits in relation to Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson track ‘Uptown Funk’ has been dismissed at the request of all parties.
An American electro-funk band called Collage sued Mars and Ronson in 2016, claiming that 2014 hit ‘Uptown Funk’ ripped off their 1983 single ‘Young Girls’. Only one member of Collage is still alive, Larry White, though the estates of his two former bandmates were also listed as plaintiffs on the action.
They weren’t the first musicians of old to accuse ‘Uptown Funk’ of ripping off their work. The Gap Band were added as co-writers on the record because of its similarities to their 1979 hit ‘Oops Up Side Your Head’, and others have gone legal with song-theft claims seeking co-write credits and a share of all those lovely royalties.
But the Collage litigation is at an end. It’s not known what was agreed between the respective parties, although Law 360 reports that both sides will cover their respective legal costs.
