Jay Z and Beyonce end the year off with a court victory over a Hungarian singer that claimed the couple used her voice on their song “Drunk In Love.”
Mitsou, the singer, said that her song was used without permission and is a “constitutionally protected work of art.”
She claims her singing was digitally manipulated and then sampled without her permission in a Manhattan court.
Mitsou, real name Mónika Juhász Miczur, dropped “Gypsy Life on the Road” in the US in 1997 and the song can be heard in the beginning of “Drunk In Love.”
Even though use of her voice was not in dispute, Mitsou still lost the case over a very specific provision.
Judge Cynthia Kern threw the case out because Mitsou went after Jay and Beyonce under the Civil Rights Law, which protects a “name, portrait, picture or voice used for advertising or trade purposes without written consent.”
Judge Kern said her grievance doesn’t apply in cases like this, according to the New York Post.
“It is undisputed that the ‘Drunk in Love’ song and video are works of artistic expression and, pursuant to well-established law, they are therefore exempted from the Civil Rights Law,” Kern said.
Mitsou also argued that the Civil Rights Law applied to her, because the song was used in ads and an HBO television special.
