Lady Gaga faces lawsuit for "ripping off" another song with 'Shallow'

12 August 2019, 16:04

By Sam Prance

Steve Ronsen is accusing Lady Gaga of copying his single 'Almost'.

Lady Gaga is being threatened with a lawsuit over accusations that 'Shallow' is a rip off of Steven Ronsen's song 'Almost'.

Lady Gaga is thriving right now. Over the course of the past 12 months alone, the 33-year-old artist has received widespread critical acclaim for her starring role as Ally in A Star Is Born. Not only that, but she has also topped charts all around the world with the film's lead single 'Shallow', which she won multiple awards for. 'Shallow' has currently earned Gaga two Grammys, a Golden Globe Award and the prestigious Best Original Song accolade at the 91st Academy Awards.

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Now musician Steve Ronsen is accusing Lady Gaga of copying his 2012 single 'Almost' with 'Shallow.

Does Lady Gaga's 'Shallow' rip off 'Almost'?

Speaking to ET, Ronsen said: “It was brought to my attention by many people that the ‘Shallow’ song sounds like mine." The lesser-known singer then continued: "I admire Lady Gaga and I just want to get to the bottom of this. There are other writers that wrote the ‘Shallow’ song, including Mark Ronson. I have secured a musicologist who also agrees that the songs are similar. I am simply going about this how anyone else would investigate any possible infringement."

Gaga's lawyer, Orin Snyder, has refuted the recent claims: "Mr. Ronsen and his lawyer are trying to make easy money off the back of a successful artist. It is shameful and wrong. I applaud Lady Gaga for having the courage and integrity to stand up on behalf of successful artists who find themselves on the receiving end of opportunistic claims such as this. Should Mr. Shirian proceed with the case, Lady Gaga will fight it vigorously and will prevail.”

Listen to 'Shallow' and 'Almost' below'.

Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper - Shallow (A Star Is Born)

Almost

Snyder went on to state: "We provided Mr. Shirian a lengthy letter with the findings of multiple leading musicologists, each of whom found no actionable similarities between the two songs. Even Shirian’s own musicologist acknowledged the generic three note progression is present in many other songs predating his client’s song.”

As Snyder states, it seems like the only similarity between the two songs is chord progression.

What do you think? Do the two songs sound similar?