Adele Faces Lawsuit Over Allegations of 'Blatant Plagiarism'

A Brazilian composer has sued Adele over her song "Million Years Ago" over allegations of "blatant plagiarism."

According to NME, composer Toninho Geraes alleges that the song borrowed elements from his song "Mulheres (Women)," which was recorded by Martinho da Bila in 1995. Geraes is now suing Adele for $160,000 for damages and is demanding that he be added to the songwriting credits on the song.

The first hearing the case was held on Dec. 13 with a judge ruling that "Million Years Ago" must be pulled from streaming services worldwide. However, the song has since remained on streaming platforms.

There was a second conciliation hearing that was held on Dec. 19. The plaintiffs in the case allege that Adele and her songwriting partner, Greg Kurstin, did not show up for the hearing, The Guardian reports.

Geraes alleges that he did not sue when the song was originally released on Adele's 25 album, because he was not made aware of the song until 2020. The lawyers allege that they arranged for a band to perform both songs in the same key and and temp, which has since been posted online.

"It’s blatant plagiarism. I had no intention of making this story public, partly to protect Adele. I don’t want a fight, but we tried to reach an out-of-court settlement, and they never even responded," Geraes said.

READ MORE: Why Adele Is Taking a Lengthy Hiatus From Music

The judge has since ruled that the video hows “a strong indication of almost complete melodic consonance”.

This is not the first time that Adele has had legal action against her over "Million Years Ago." When the song was released in 2015, Adele was accused of copying a song called "Acilara Tutunmak (Clinging to Pain)" by Turkish singer Ahmet Kaya. While fans were the ones to accuse Adele of copying the song, Kaya's widow claimed that it was unlikely that Adele copied the song.