Marshmello’s ‘Happier’ is turning to anything but happy at the moment for the global star. From a world-wide hit into a nightmare collaboration, with the two artists already in a public feud over the choice of collaborating with Chris Brown on recent single “Light It Up”. Now to make matters worse, it’s been revealed there might be a new reason for them to be at odds.
Russian producer Arty is alleging their hit song took elements from his official remix of One Republic’s “I Lived”. He’s brought the case to the federal court in California and the suit names defendants and co-writers, Daniel Campbell Smith of Bastille, and Steve Mac.
Arty has appointed Nashville copyright attorney Richard Busch to argue his claim. While he may not ring a bell, he has won a number of landmark cases in recent years such as “Blurred Lines.” infringement of Marvin Gaye’s Estate by Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke.
Currently on Spotify, “Happier” has more than 700 million streams with the total number already in the billions given other platforms and YouTube.
These cases are incredibly complex and as it is only on the remixed elements of the song rather than the underlying copyright the arguments being brought forward will be an interesting to see, its one case that we’ll be paying attention to as it develops.
USA Today reported his lawyer Busch saying “Everything we have to say is set out in detail in the complaint, including the compelling musical transcriptions comparing the two works,” among which it says it was “will-fully copying” the remix “note for note.”
Marshmello is yet to respond to the claims.
Listen to the songs below and let us know your thoughts.
