The Weeknd And Daft Punk Are Being Sued For $5M

Singer The Weeknd and his producers Daft Punk are being sued over his hit song “Starboy” by a songwriter who claims they ripped her off. Somali-American poet Yasmin “Yasmina” Mohamed claimed that “Starboy” is similar to her 2009 song “Hooyo” and is suing for $5 million. “Starboy” was released in Nov. 2016.

Yasmina said The Weeknd became familiar with her song because it was popular with the “East African diaspora of which The Weeknd is connected.” She even cited a Twitter post by The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, talking about missing “my somalian goons.”

To Yasminah, the similarities are obvious to the ear — same hook, same key and similar tempo.

This is not the first time that Yasminah has sued The Weeknd. According to TMZ, Yasminah has threatened the singer with legal action before, but claimed that two of her producers had previously reached a settlement. However, Yasminah claims that she “never got a cut” of that alleged settlement, which is why she is suing The Weeknd and Daft Punk again.

But Yasminah is suing more than just the two artists; she’s also suing her own record label, The Squad, and producers William Uschold and Tyrone Dangerfeild, saying they settled with The Weeknd over “Yooho” and left her out of the deal.

By: Maytinee Kramer