Adele’s 2015 Song Faces Plagiarism Lawsuit, Judge Orders Nationwide Ban On Song

Adele’s 2015 song ‘Million Years Ago’ has been singled out in a new plagiarism lawsuit. And in a new injunction filed this Friday, Dec. 20, in Rio de Janeiro’s Sixth Commercial Court, Brazilian Judge Victor Torres has declared that the track be banned nationwide from streaming services and other global platforms, per a report by Agence France-Presse.

For every time the Brazilian subsidiaries of Adele’s labels, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music, fail to comply, they will be fined $8,000. Here’s what we know.

Adele Allegedly Ripped Off Song She Helped Co-write From A Brazilian Artist

English singer-songwriter Adele is apparently not having the best holidays, what with a song she co-wrote with music producer Greg Kurstin being banned from streaming and radio services in Brazil.

The reason for this is that Judge Victor Torres is convinced that the song is a ripoff of Martinho Da Vila’s samba classic ‘Mulheres.’ Toninho Geraes, who wrote the Brazilian song, first sued for plagiarism in 2021.

In the injunction issued on Friday, Adele’s labels were ordered to stop “immediately and globally, from using, reproducing, editing, distributing or commercializing” the beloved ballad.

“International producers and artists who have Brazilian music ‘on their radar’ for possible parasitic use will think twice, given this decision,” Geraes’ attorney, Fredimio Trotta, told AFP following the ruling.

Sony and Universal can choose to appeal this judgement, though there’s been no comment from either regarding the recent ruling.

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Adele On What Inspired Her Hit Song ‘Million Years Ago’

‘Million Years Ago’ was one of the track’s from Adele’s third studio album, which spawned other successful hits like ‘Hello’ and ‘When We Were Young.’

In 2015, Adele appeared in the special ‘Adele at the BBC’ with Graham Norton and talked about the experiences that inspired the ballad.

“It’s kind of a story about … I drove past Brockwell Park, which is a park in South London I used to live by,” she explained, per Billboard. “It’s where I spent a lot of my youth. It has quite monumental moments of my life that I’ve spent there, and I drove past it and I just literally burst into tears.”

“I really missed it, for no other reason than we’ve all got different things going on and it’s got nothing to do with me not feeling like I can’t go and sit in there and drink a bottle of cider anymore … it’s more that life happens, so I’ve got no one to meet there,” Adele went on.

“That’s basically what it is,” she continued. “And it’s just sort of about that, and about [how] I never realized that this was going to happen. I never, ever realized when I had my guitar in the park, singing to my friends … we never in a million years thought this would ever happen.”

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