Justin Bieber and Dan + Shay are facing copyright infringement lawsuit over their 2019 collaborative song 10,000 Hours, according to People.
In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court by International Manufacturing Concepts, Melomega music and Sound Gems, the pop star and country music duo are accused of stealing a ‘core portion’ of their hit song from the 1980 tune The First Time Baby Is A Holiday.
The group of companies, who claim to own the song, are seeking to be credited as writers of the track, along with money in damages, statutory damages, attorney fees, along with an injunction preventing further distribution of the song.
Sued: Justin Bieber and Dan + Shay are facing copyright infringement lawsuit over their 2019 collaborative song 10,000 Hours
According to suit, the parts of the song in question include the chorus, verse and hook from The First Time Baby Is A Holiday, which was originally written by Palmer Rakes and Frank Fioravanti.
Melomega maintains they have the support of musicologist Dr. Alexander Stewart, who analyzed the two songs and then reached ‘ineluctable conclusion that defendants stole plaintiff’s song.’
‘10,000 Hours is not just substantially similar to First Time; defendants copied, in minute detail, the most important, core portion of plaintiff’s song, which includes the chorus, verse and hook,’ Melomega’s attorneys wrote, adding, ‘The similarities are so striking that 10,000 Hours simply cannot have been independently created.’
Melomega’s lawyer Tre Lovell went on to called the defendants’ theft ‘impudently bold’, adding, ‘One need only listen to First Time and the infringing 10,000 Hours to discern the unmistakable similarities between the songs.’
Collaboration: 10,000 Hours was released in October 2019 and used as the lead single from Dan + Shay’s fourth studio album, Good Things (2021); they’re seen at CMA Awards in 2020
Released in October 2019 and used as the lead single from Dan + Shay’s fourth studio album, Good Things (2021), 10,000 Hours has six credited writers: Bieber, 28, and the duo’s Dan Smyers, 34, and Shay Mooney, 30, along with Jason Boyd, Jesse Jo Dillon and Jordan Reynolds.
It debuted at No. 4 on the Hot 100 and spent two weeks atop the Country Airplay chart before going on to win Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 2021 Grammy Awards.
In the music video for the song, the three singers each starred alongside their wives, serenading them in their own romantic setting.
Romantic setting: In the music video for 10,000, the three singers each starred alongside their wives, serenading them in their own romantic setting
For his part, Bieber and wife Hailey Baldwin share a kiss while laying in a bed of flowers as both are color coordinated in white.
The First Time Baby Is A Holiday was registered at the U.S. Copyright Office in 1980. And according to the lawsuit, the song would end up being released in 2014 by Sony Music unit The Orchard.
So far representatives for Bieber and Dan + Shay have not publicly responded to the lawsuit.
The claim: ‘10,000 Hours is not just substantially similar to First Time; defendants copied, in minute detail, the most important, core portion of plaintiff’s song,’ Melomega’s attorneys wrote, in part, in support of the copyright infringement lawsuit