Tory Lanez's Alone At Prom album may have gotten good reviews from his fans, but there are a couple of experienced artists who've voiced their issues with the '80s-inspired project.
According to a report Rolling Stone published Monday, March 14, the estate of the late singer George Michael and his former Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley have accused Lanez of using their song "Careless Whisper" without permission for his track "Enchanted Waterfall." In a statement, the George Michael estate and Ridgeley, who co-wrote the 1984 song with Michael, said that they had previously denied Lanez's request to sample the song for his album. But Lanez allegedly did it anyways.
“It was brought to our attention that the song ‘Enchanted Waterfall’ by the artist Tory Lanez incorporated an unauthorized sample of ‘Careless Whisper’ written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley,” the statement read. “Requested permission for this use had been declined in June 2021 so we took immediate action on behalf of the writers, in collaboration with our publishers Warner Chappell Music, to prevent further exploitation as we will not tolerate any unauthorized use of any songs within the catalogs of George Michael and/or Andrew Ridgeley.”
Technically, "Enchanted Waterfall" isn't on Spotify but does appear on other platforms like Apple Music and Tidal. The official music video for the song is also still up on YouTube.
This is the second song off Alone At Prom that has caused issues for Lanez and his lawyers. Not long after the project dropped, Madonna also expressed her thoughts about one song in particular, “Pluto’s Last Comet.” Back in December, the pop diva alleged that Lanez ripped off her 1985 classic "Into The Groove." After she first made the allegations in an Instagram comment on his page, Madonna explained her position further to Rolling Stone.
“I am tired of being taken advantage of and I mean business," Madonna said.
Lanez has not commented on the new allegations from George Michael's estate just yet.