Justin Bieber and Dan + Shay face a copyright infringement lawsuit that accuses them of copying a “core portion” of their hit collab “10,000 Hours” from a 1980 song called “The First Time Baby Is A Holiday.”
The complaint was filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court by a company called Melomega.
“Defendants’ theft is impudently bold,” reads the complaint, which also names Dan + Shay’s label, Warner Music Group, as a defendant. “One need only listen to ‘First Time’ and the infringing ‘10,000 Hours’ to discern the unmistakable similarities between the songs.”
The claim was corroborated by musicologist Dr. Alexander Stewart, who arrived at the “ineluctable conclusion that defendants stole plaintiff’s song.”
“10,000 Hours” was released on October 4, 2019, as the lead single from Dan + Shay’s fourth studio album, Good Things. The song was written by duo members Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, Bieber, Poo Bear, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Jordan Reynolds, and produced solely by Smyers. The song was named Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 2021 Grammy Awards.
The song debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It topped Billboard‘s Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts.
“The First Time Baby Is A Holiday” was written by Palmer Rakes and Frank Fioravanti, the latter of whom later formed Melomega.
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