Katy Perry is no stranger to controversy, but she has managed to stay away from legal copyright disputes so far. Well, not anymore. The singer is being sued over her catchy single “Dark Horse,” which the plaintiffs claim replicated their 2006 song “Joyful Noise.” But that’s not even the strangest part of this story.
The four musicians suing Perry are a Christian rock band and claim that the pop songstress not only used their original tune, but that she also sullied it with “witchcraft, paganism, black magic and Illuminati imagery.” This case isn’t Perry’s first brush with plagiarism accusations – last year, she came under fire for the apparent similarities between her single “Roar” and Sara Bareilles’ “Brave.”
Interestingly, Perry has been accused of practising occult hobbies before. When she debuted the song at the 2014 Grammy Awards, plenty of keyboard warriors rode in to fight against the death of decency and accused Perry of working for the forces of evil. Pretty standard stuff. This might be the first time where that accusation has been used in a copyright dispute, however. The complaint was filed on July 1, in St Louis according to Billboard. Rappers Marcus Gray, Emanuel Lambert, Lecrae Moore and producer Chike Ojukwu are seeking damages from Katy Perry, Juicy J, Lukasz Gottwald, Sarah Theresa Hudson, Max Martin, Henry Russell Walter and Capitol Records.