Davido
Davido Given 21 Days to Appear in U.S. Court Over Alleged Song Theft
Nigerian singer David ‘Davido’ Adeleke has been ordered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to appear within 21 days to face allegations of intellectual property theft.
Four Nigerian artists—Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru—filed a lawsuit accusing Davido of copying their 2022 track ‘Work’ to create his 2024 song ‘Strawberry on Ice’. Also named in the suit are collaborator Emmerson Amidu Bockarie (professionally known as Emmerson), Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, and Wynn Records, the label behind *‘Strawberry on Ice’.
Court documents reveal that the dispute began in January 2022 when the plaintiffs shared a demo of ‘Work’ with Davido, hoping for a collaboration that could boost their careers. Instead, they allege, Davido shared the song with Emmerson without permission, leading to the unauthorized use of instrumental and vocal elements from ‘Work’ in ‘Strawberry on Ice’.
After months of attempts to resolve the matter, Davido reportedly agreed on March 14, 2025, to pay $45,000 in settlement and grant the plaintiffs 40% of composition royalties and 20% of sound recording royalties for ‘Strawberry on Ice’. However, he allegedly failed to meet the March 24 payment deadline, prompting the lawsuit filed on April 4.
The plaintiffs seek $150,000 in damages, a 40% stake in the song’s compositional copyright, a 20% share in its sound recording copyright, and a court order preventing further copyright violations by Davido and his co-defendants.
Neither Davido nor Wynn Records responded to requests for comment.
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