According to court papers seen by ZAlebs, the Jerusalema vocalist has sued Open Mic Productions over the removal of her Grammy-nominated song "Bayethe" from Spotify.
The song was released in September, and it features Wouter Kellerman and Zakes Bantwini. Bayethe is nominated for "Best Global Music Performance" at the Grammy's.
Nomcebo and the music company are no strangers to controversy. They have been at loggerhead for over a year now over Jerusalema royalties. On Wednesday, she is reportedly planning to file a lawsuit against them.
According to the paper, Spotify removed the song from its service immediately after it was announced as a Grammy nominee
Open Mic through its attorneys MM, wrote to Spotify that the recording infringes on its intellectual property. However, Nomcebo claims Open Mic does not own any copyright or other intellectual property rights to the song.
"The statement is false, and the respondent knows it to be so. It holds no copyright or other intellectual property rights, in the song or the recording entitled to attempt to prevent me from making recordings and performing," read part of the court papers.
The court documents reveal Nomcebo’s claims that “the takedown notice and the conduct of the respondent as set out below constitute: an injurious falsehood, an unlawful and intentional interference with my and the second applicant’s contractual and/or property rights and unlawful competition”.
Nomcebo further added: “As a result of the recording being removed from Spotify, and potentially from other platforms of which I am unaware, the second applicant and I have suffered and stand to suffer further harm, the extent of which will be difficult, if not impossible, to quantify. Furthermore, I have a reasonable apprehension that the take-down request, along with other take-down requests of which I am unaware, or which the respondent may still issue, may have a bearing on the Grammy for which I have been nominated.” She has asked the court that Open Mic be ordered to advise Spotify to reinstate the song “within 24 hours of the interim relief being granted”.
The court papers state again that Nomcebo has not been paid royalties for her contributions to "Jerusalema", a global hit single. In her court papers, she claims she hasn't been paid a cent for "Jerusalema", the most streamed African song ever. For some reason, Open Mic has decided to exclude Nomcebo from partaking in her rightful earnings from the song’s success. And now Nomcebo is fighting back.
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Nomcebo is suing OpenMic Productions record label over its decision to pull the Grammy nominated “Bayethe” song, from streaming site.
Speaking to ZAlebs last month, Zakes said he was excited that Bayethe had bagged a nomination at the Grammy's
"I heard the news while I was out at a restaurant having dinner with friends. I was so happy and called everybody to share this moment with me. I made so much noise, and I am sure some of the customers in that restaurant thought I was crazy but, I was excited that I am nominated at the Grammy's. This is the biggest accolade I could ever get," he said
He added "It means everything to me, shout out to Nomcebo Zikode and Wouter. It means I am in a good direction with my music career and I am dope," says Zakes adding that this nomination is his highlight for the year.
