Dionne Warwick Sued Over Copyright Dispute for Sample Song Doja Cat

Dionne Warwick (Instagram @therealdionnew)

JAKARTA - Legendary American singer Dionne Warwick is facing a serious legal lawsuit from the Artists Rights Enforcement Corporation (AREC) regarding royalty disputes.

The lawsuit came after the incredible success of rapper Doja Cat's song "Paint the Town Red", which uses a sample of Warwick's 1964 classic "Walk On By".

AREC filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday, December 15. In its legal documents, the company accused Warwick of breach of contract and obtaining "unfair enrichment".

They claim that Warwick is trying to cut off the flow of royalty payments that should be the company's right with a value of hundreds of thousands, even millions of US dollars.

The dispute began with AREC's role in negotiating a sample licensing deal in 2023 that allowed Doja Cat to use Warwick's original recording. The song became a global phenomenon with nearly 1.5 billion plays on Spotify and more than 377 million views on YouTube.

The company stated that Warwick had reaped huge profits from AREC's work in the sample deal.

Under the contract signed since 2002, AREC is entitled to 50 percent of the royalties recovered from Warwick's works during his heyday at Scepter Records. For more than two decades, the company claims to have provided Warwick with resources and legal assistance free of charge to obtain fair compensation for his previously unpaid works.

The conflict escalated when Warwick allegedly tried to unilaterally cancel the decades-old agreement. Through his lawyer, the 85-year-old singer was reported to have asked record labels such as Rhino (a division of Warner Music Group), Sony, and performance rights organization PPL to send payments directly to him, without going through AREC.

In its lawsuit, AREC explained, their track record in saving Warwick's finances, including helping to resolve a tax arrears problem that had frozen his royalty account at Sony Music.

"After decades of service, Ms. Warwick is now trying to evade her obligation to pay Artists Rights hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of dollars. By doing so, she has violated her contract with Artists Rights," the statement read in the lawsuit document, quoted by Music Business Worldwide, Thursday, December 18.

The plaintiffs also expressed disappointment that Warwick seemed to forget their services even though their royalty income increased about sixtyfold thanks to the company's hard work.

"Despite the fact that Ms. Warwick's royalty distribution from the above-mentioned record company has increased by about sixty times as a result of Artists Rights' work, Ms. Warwick has further expressed her desire to stop paying Artists Rights," he continued.

AREC is now seeking a legal declaration confirming their right to 25 percent of royalties from SoundExchange and PPL, as well as 50 percent of other entities.