Beyoncé lawsuit over ‘Break My Soul’ sample dropped

A lawsuit filed over Beyoncé’s hit single ‘Break My Soul’ has been dropped.

First revealed back in May, the filing was put forward by a New Orleans group called Da Showstoppaz, who accused the pop star of copyright infringement with her hit ‘Renaissance’ lead single.

The issue stemmed from Beyoncé’s 2022 song sampling Big Freedia – who the band claim unlawfully used lyrics from their 2002 track ‘Release A Wiggle’.

Members of the band, Tessa Avie, Keva Bourgeois, Henri Braggs, and Brian Clark, all filed a complaint to the Louisiana federal court. In the filing, they alleged that Bey sampled Big Freedia’s 2014 track ‘Explode’ – however, the latter unlawfully used “copyrighted lyrics, melody, and musical arrangement” from their own track, making the feature in ‘Break My Soul’ unlawful.

As well as the ‘Cowboy Carter’ singer, Big Freedia, Sony Music, Jay-Z and more have been named as defendants.

Now, it has been confirmed that the copyright lawsuit has been voluntarily dismissed.

According to a report by Rolling Stone, the court filing did not mention a settlement agreement, meaning that it is likely that the case was simply dropped. The outlet also added that reps for both Beyoncé and Da Showstoppaz did not respond when asked for comment.

In the May filing, the complaint drew attention to how the song has seen huge success due to it topping the US singles chart, being played frequently on Bey’s ‘Renaissance’ tour, and appearing in her accompanying documentary film about the live shows.

“Mrs. Carter, Big Freedia, Parkwood, Sony, and others have received many accolades and substantial profits from ‘Explode’ and ‘Break My Soul’ and the ‘Renaissance’ album, the ‘Renaissance World Tour,’ and the Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” it stated. “Da Showstoppaz’s have received nothing — no acknowledgement, no credit, no remuneration of any kind.”

In the lawsuit, the New Orleans group were asking to be credited and for compensation rights on ‘Break My Soul’ and ‘Explode,’ as well as royalties for future licences on the tracks.

Seeing as Beyoncé licensed the sample of the Big Freedia track ‘Explode’ legally, the alleged infringement on Da Showstoppaz would have been accidental.

Since the start of 2024, Bey has made countless headlines for the huge success of her country-inspired album ‘Cowboy Carter’.

‘COWBOY CARTER’ – MAIN COVER ART. CREDIT: Press

Shortly after it arrived, it hit countless milestones, including making Beyoncé the first Black woman to reach Number One on the US country chart with ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’, the first Black woman to score a Number One country album in the US charts, and gathering support from huge names including Michelle Obama and Paul McCartney.

The star shared a remix of ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ too, and revealed that she kept much of the original backing track from the original 1968 version of ‘Blackbird’ in her cover. She also confirmed that Stevie Wonder played harmonica on ‘Jolene’, and RAYE was credited as a co-writer on one ‘Cowboy Carter’ song.

More recently, the ‘Single Ladies’ singer has openly shown her support of renowned US gymnast Simone Biles amid the 2024 Paris Olympics – recording a promotional video for NBC Sports, hailing her as both “inspiring” and “brilliant”.

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