Beyoncé faces a new copyright lawsuit over “Alien Superstar,” a track from her 2022 album Renaissance. Hirose Enterprise and producer Shuji Hirose accuse the singer and several music companies of using a sample without securing the necessary rights.
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According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Hirose Enterprise claims it owns the rights to “Moonraker,” a song performed by musician John Holiday. The lawsuit focuses on the spoken-word introduction that appears at the beginning of “Alien Superstar.”
Hirose alleges that Beyoncé and her team released Renaissance without obtaining a license to use that material. The company claims the team later secured a license from Holiday several weeks after the album’s release. However, Hirose says Holiday had transferred his entire interest in the song decades earlier, leaving Hirose with the relevant rights.
Beyoncé Accused Of Unfairly Profiting Off “Alien Superstar”
The plaintiffs also claim they notified Beyoncé’s company about the alleged infringement. Despite that notice, they say the companies continued to sell and profit from Renaissance.
Hirose now asks a judge to issue an injunction that would prevent Beyoncé and the defendants from continuing to make money from the disputed material. The company also seeks unspecified damages.
The dispute comes after an earlier legal fight involving the same song. In June, a federal court dismissed a separate copyright lawsuit concerning the sample that opens “Alien Superstar.” That case involved different plaintiffs and ended on standing grounds, according to contemporary reports.
The track also contains other credited musical elements, including an interpolation of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy.”
Beyoncé and her team have yet to officially or publicly comment on the lawsuit.
“Alien Superstar” remains one of the most popular songs on Beyoncé’s Renaissance album. With over 300,000,000 streams on Spotify alone, the track is certainly one to fight for, on both sides of the law suit.
Out of the 400+ songs Beyoncé has on Spotify, per KWORB, “Alien Superstar” is the 28th most-streamed song she has.
For now, we can only wait for the courts to take their course.