₦airaland Forum

U.S. court summons Davido to New York for stealing 2024 soundtrack, failing to pay $45,000 debt

Davido was sued alongside Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, professionally known as Emmerson, featured on the musician’s song.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan has given Nigerian singer, David ‘Davido’ Adeleke, 21 days to appear before it to answer charges of intellectual property theft, according to legal filings sighted by Peoples Gazette.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of four Nigerian artistes, Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell and David Ovhioghena Umaru, who accused Davido of stealing their 2022 song ‘Work’, which he allegedly used to create his own soundtrack titled ‘Strawberry on Ice’ in 2024.

Davido was sued alongside Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, professionally known as Emmerson, featured on the musician’s song, Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II and Wynn Records, the music agency responsible for publishing and distributing the “Strawberry on Ice.’’

According to the legal filings, the matter started in January 2022 when the plaintiffs, in good faith, gave Davido the demo of ‘Work’ as part of a potential collaboration between parties, prompted by the group’s search for a major breakthrough in the music industry.

However, the plaintiffs claimed instead of working with the group, Davido, without permission, took the song to Emmerson, who proceeded to steal and sample individual recorded instrumental and vocal elements of the ‘Work’ to create their own version “Strawberry on Ice.’’

To resolve the issue amicably, the plaintiffs immediately reached out to Davido and were finally able to get hold of their Grammy-nominated musician after several months and he subsequently entered an agreement with the group to pay a lump sum of $45,000 in settlement on March 14, 2025, court documents showed.

Davido also agreed to give the plaintiffs 40 per cent of royalties for the underlying composition of “Strawberry on Ice” and 20 per cent royalties for sound recording of the song. However, Davido failed to fulfill the terms of the agreement despite promising to pay before a March 24 deadline agreed upon by all parties.

Davido’s actions prompted the plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against the singer alongside his co-defendants in New York on April 4.

In their filings, the plaintiffs are asking the court to rule that Davido and his co-defendants infringed on the intellectual property of “’Work.’’ They are also seeking $150,000 in damages and the transfer of 40 per cent of “Strawberry on Ice” compositional copyright and 20 per cent in sound recording copyright of the song to plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs also asked the court to ban the singer and other defendants in the case from further infringing group’s copyrights, or from participating in actions that would infringe the plaintiffs’ future copyrights.

Davido did not return a request seeking comments from The Gazette on Wednesday while a representative for Wynn Records also declined comments.

https://gazettengr.com/u-s-court-summons-davido-to-new-york-for-stealing-2024-soundtrack-failing-to-pay-45000-debt/

Davido Reacts

Following the development, Davido took to the insta-stories section of his official Instagram page to to react. In the IG post, Davido shows that she is unfazed by the development as he updated fans on the pendant he will be making for his upcoming album “5ive”.

Reposting a post by bennydajeweller, it was accompnaied with the caption; “Biggest, pendant in the world about to be done for @davido for the 5 album, let us go.”

Thank God na abroad.

If it had been in Naija, dem for don dey sleep for prison tay tay.

Tor

Davido don dey slow down gradually like 2face. Money don plenty

Dami Krane joined the chat

Meaning,anytime he flies to yankee.
He would be arrested and charged to court

Innocent until proven guilty.

😆

That's a fvcking ugly expensive pendant...


BigWiz

STARBOY

😎

Wahalla for OBO I pray he scape through this.

Nigerian artistes and fake lives.

Many of them dey owe clubs and lounges millions.

2cribz:
Meaning,anytime he flies to yankee.
He would be arrested and charged to court

He is in Yankee not if he flies there.

Stealing ke

Iro ni o

Who else didn't notice the STRAWBERRY ON ICE song?

I love gentleman agreement. If truly Davido accepted to pay them 45k dos, why defaulting?

Has he offended Chioma again?

Baddest must have quarrel with chioma

Morbeta11:
https://gazettengr.com/u-s-court-summons-davido-to-new-york-for-stealing-2024-soundtrack-failing-to-pay-45000-debt/

Davido Reacts

Following the development, Davido took to the insta-stories section of his official Instagram page to to react. In the IG post, Davido shows that she is unfazed by the development as he updated fans on the pendant he will be making for his upcoming album “5ive”.

Reposting a post by bennydajeweller, it was accompnaied with the caption; “Biggest, pendant in the world about to be done for @davido for the 5 album, let us go.”

See his head...owe owe One

. Hmmm 71,488,474 Naira

Davido the stupid fool.

Money na H2o

Make Una Help Me Check Something

Davido nah werey!

G

2cribz:
Meaning,anytime he flies to yankee.
He would be arrested and charged to court

Dunce, he's already in Yankee. Go and arrest him. Some of you think from your anus

Hmmmmm

Davido alias African giant version 3. His songs trend with ease. But not ‘Strawberry on Ice.’ I have never heard of the song.

The song must have sank into obscurity. If you check, Daniel Regha might have called it "forgettable," … so fans were indifferent, and within weeks the song vanished from playlists. The song was a flop.

Then came a group of four Nigerian artistes.

All relatively unknown. But now you want to check them out, and also check out the song in question.

So these artistes burst into the news cycle claiming ‘Strawberry on Ice’ was stolen from them, that it was an original song ‘work’ they had recorded which they shared with Davido.
Some of us might be interested in comparing, and then we will stream that song too.

So they filed a lawsuit against Davido, and as usual the internet lit up. Headlines, Social media, Bloggers, Wizkid fans, Burna boy fans… everybody have their take.

But most importantly people started listening to the song. They want to hear the "stolen" track. Streams will skyrocket. The song will trend. Might even enter the charts, and not because it was loved, or because it was a great song but because it was controversial. Curiosity drive clicks. And Clicks drive revenue.

So weeks later, the court will deliver its verdict: Davido will not pay them royalties and it will look like justice. It will look like closure. If he pays them, then his reputation is impaired. So in this orchestra, that is unnecessary.


So maybe they orchestrate this drama? And the lawsuit was their stage. And everyone outrage or interest was their marketing. Maybe what they lost in legal fees, they gained tenfold in streaming revenue, while the four artiste gained media exposure.

So they play the public.

U don fight chioma again


Billion gang this is not up to half a bilion

He would soon be apprehended, idiot

REIIGN:
Dunce, he's already in Yankee. Go and arrest him. Some of you think from your anus