A jury found that prominent singer Katy Perry improperly copied a Christian rap song by Marcus Gray, known by his stage name Flame.
Perry was found guilty for taking the underlying beat of the 2008 song “Joyful Noise” and applying it to her 2013 hit “Dark Horse.” Her collaborators and co-writers—including rapper Juicy J, Cirkut, Max Martin, Sarah Hudson and Lukasz—were also declared liable.
Gray and two co-authors, Emmanuel Lambert and Chike Ojukwu, first sued Perry five years ago. The jury has yet to decide how much money Perry and her collaborators will owe.
Perry used to be a Christian singer but argued that she never listened to Christian music. Yet the jury stated “Joyful Noise” was distributed widely enough for the authors of “Dark Horse” to have heard it. Two YouTube videos of the Christian rap song collectively have over 5 million views.
Watch the music video for “Joyful Noise” here.
