Chris Brown Says He Didn’t Steal Hit Tune “Don’t Wake Me Up”
Chris Brown is blasting the songwriter who accused him of stealing her music for his hit song “Don’t Wake Me Up,” explaining he never even heard of the woman or her track, and is demanding her lawsuit be thrown out of court.
Earlier this year, Nayeri Gregor aka Nayri filed a federal lawsuit against Chris Brown, Sony Music and Benny Banassi accusing them of stealing her music.
Gregor explained that back in 2009 she wrote and recorded a song entitled “Don’t Wake Me Up.”
Then in 2011, she met a man named Brian Kennedy through a publicist friend. Her friend told Kennedy that she was a great songwriter and she played for him that night. He liked the music so much he set up a meeting with her at a later date.
Gregor explained that she created a playlist of her work to bring to the meeting which included the song “Don’t Wake Me Up.” She said that at the meeting he placed her CD into his computer and he said, “Don’t worry, I’m not downloading it.”
However, she said Kennedy failed to inform her that he could hear a song once and remember everything from the melodies to the scales after one listen. She claimed he not only downloaded the music she played for him at the meeting but memorized it with his ability to recall melodies.
She said that Kennedy praised her music at the meeting … despite him knowingly full well he was never going to call her again or compensate her for her work. Gregor says she never heard from Kennedy again following their meeting about her work.
Kennedy then played her song for Chris Brown and Benny Banassi, and Brown recorded the tune and released on his 2012 album “Fortune,” and even copyrighted it.
Gregor explained her song and Brown’s song share identical titles, similar lyrics, both begin with spoken words by a female voice and the hook lyrics are identical along with both songs have the same rhythmical figure and overall beat. She sued Kennedy, Brown and Banassi demanding $150,000 for each infringement along with other damages for their alleged music theft.
Then on October 30th, Brown fired back at the songwriters legal battle blasting the allegations he stole music. The singer said all the claims that he took Grego’s track and used it for his own are lies. Brown does admit that the songs have the same title and use the lyric, “Don’t Wake Me Up.” However, he explains the title and the lyric cannot be copyrighted due to them being so common.
Brown said he did not steal anything and the woman’s lawsuit is a bunch of nonsense. He added that the woman also waited to long to even file a lawsuit accusing him of copyright infringement.
The singer even told the court that he never heard the songwriter’s track or even have access to hear it if he wanted. He says he did not wrong and never acted improper when creating his single.
Brown is demanding the entire lawsuit be thrown out and the woman awarded nothing from her complaint.
