Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, members of the indie pop group Sleigh Bells, have filed a lawsuit against Demi Lovato for copyright infringement. According to the duo, the pop singer's "Stars" track from 2015 copied certain elements from their "Infinity Guitars" song.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in California's federal court. The suit listed Lovato as well as UMG Recordings Inc. as the defendants. Universal Music Group was the record label that Lovato was signed to when she released "Stars," which is a bonus track on her album Confident. In the suit, Krauss and Miller specified the various similarities between "Stars" and Sleigh Bells' 2010 hit.
"A comparison of the two songs reveals that, at the very least, the combination of the hand claps and bass drum, structured as 3 quarter beats and a rest, with the bass drum providing a counter-rhythm to the hand claps, it at least substantially similar in both works," Sleigh Bells stated in the lawsuit.
"This infringing material repeats throughout the defendants' song," the group added.
Sleigh Bells had already reached out to Lovato's camp last year regarding the similarities between "Stars" and "Infinity Guitars," which is the second single from the band's debut album Treats. Through a tweet posted by the band on November 2015, the group stated that Lovato sampled "Infinity Guitars" and "Riot Rhythm" for "Stars." The singer's producers Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub responded by denying the allegations made by Krauss and Miller.
.@ddlovato Demi Lovato flattered you guys sampled Infinity Guitars & Riot Rhythm for "Stars" but we were not contacted. Gotta clear those.
— SLEIGH BELLS (@sleighbells) November 2, 2015
"We did not use any samples in Demi Lovato's song 'Stars,'" Yacoub and Falk said in a statement to Billboard. "Demi was not involved with the production. She only wrote the top line."
