stranger danger

Sam Smith and Normani are being sued over this song

Sam Smith in the 'Dancing With A Stranger' video
Sam Smith in the ‘Dancing With A Stranger’ video (Photo: YouTube)

Queer singer Sam Smith and Normani (Fifth Harmony) are facing legal action over a song they released together: 2019’s ‘Dancing With A Stranger’.

According to Rolling Stone, the songwriters of a 2015 track by singer Jordan Vincent, ‘Dancing With Strangers’ (Vincent, Christopher Miranda, and Rosco Banlaoi), say Smith and Normani’s track plagiarized their song.

Related: Um, who’s this super hot guy Sam Smith was just photographed making out with at a bar?

In papers filed Friday in Los Angeles, they claim, “The hook/chorus in both songs — the most significant part and artistic aspect of these works — contains the lyrics ‘dancing with a stranger’ being sung over a nearly identical melody and musical composition.”

They also point to similarities in the music videos.

“Both videos consist of a girl performing interpretive dance alone in a minimalist studio, interspersed with shots of the male vocalist.

“A girl dancing alone is not an obvious visual theme for a music video titled ‘Dancing With a Stranger,’ tending to dispel any notion that this similarity is a coincidence. When the extraordinary musical similarity between the songs is also factored in, it becomes even more apparent that it is impossible that the infringing composition and sound recording were independently created.”

It goes on to say, “Defendants’ representatives were contacted in November 2020 about the similarities. Defendants were given every chance to come up with an innocent explanation, but, despite assurances that a response was coming including a musicological analysis and report, the defendants never issued a response. This suit is being filed as a last resort.”

Smith and Normani have not responded to requests for comment.

Related: How much does Sam Smith love poppers? (This much.)

This is not the first time Smith has been sued for copyright infringement. In 2015, Smith settled with Tom Petty after the veteran songwriter complained that Smith’s ‘Stay With Me’ bore similarities to his own 1989 hit, ‘I Won’t Back Down’.

Petty and co-writer Jeff Lynne were subsequently listed as co-writers on the Smith track.

‘Dancing With A Stranger’ reached number 3 in the UK charts and number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It has been streamed over 3billion times, according to the lawsuit.

What do you think of the claim? Check out the two songs below.

Jordan Vincent

Sam Smith, Normani

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