Cher vs. Mary Bono | Matt Connarton Unleashed

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some quick music news I saw pop up. This is
from digital Musicnews dot com. And I did not know
that this was going on. But Mary Bono files appeal
following momentous Share copyright victory. I had no idea that
this was happening, that Mary Bono, Sonny Bono's widow, was

(00:20):
actually fighting with Cher, who was also married to Sonny Bono.
Of course, over there's always Here's the thing about the
music industry, there's one thing you can always count on.
Someone is always doing somebody for something, it says here.
Sonny Bono's widow, Mary files an appeal following a federal
judge's ruling last year that Share is still entitled to

(00:41):
fifty percent of the proceeds from her nineteen sixties hits
with Sonny. Of course, everyone knows Sonny and Chair. Even
you youngins have probably heard of Sonny and Share at
least before. Before Share was the hugely successful solo artist
that she became, she was, of course, one half of
the duo Sonny and Share, it says here. Last year,

(01:01):
a federal judge ruled the Chare is still entitled to
half of the publishing proceeds from her early hits with
her ex Sonny Bono, including I Got You Babe. Everyone
knows that song, right, I Got You Babe? Forgive me
for singing? Now. A year and a half later, Sonny's widow,
Mary Bono, has filed an appeal. Mary has been trying
to stop paying royalties to Share under so called termination rights,

(01:26):
under which artists and their heirs can gain back control
of intellectual property years after signing it away. But last year,
a federal judge ruled that termination rights do not apply
to Sonny and SHARE's nineteen seventy eight a divorce settlement,
which entitled Share to a fifty percent cut of publishing
revenue from hits like I Got You Babe, The Beat

(01:49):
Goes On and Baby Don't Go in perpetuity. In May
twenty twenty four, California Federal US District Judge John A.
Cronstat ruled in Cher's favor, but the decision wasn't made
official until a final judgment that was entered just last month.

(02:09):
That judgment was appealed by Mary Bono's attorney, Daniel shacked Shat,
to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, December
twenty second. Mary Bono has argued she should be able
to invoke her termination rights to cancel Sunny's assignment of

(02:30):
royalties to Share in the divorce settlement, but Judge Cronstatt
ruled that the divorce agreement was a contract for financial compensation,
not a grant of intellectual property that would be subject
to termination, writing that quote a right to receive royalties
is distinct from a grant of copyright unquote, so it

(02:53):
says a shat told Billboard quote Judge Cronstat's got the
law wrong on copyright term nations. His ruling, if left standing,
will hurt songwriters and creators by allowing not just former spouses,
but also publishers and labels to circumvent the Copyright Act
and keep shares of royalties even after termination unquote, he

(03:14):
said at the time of the judges ruling last year.
By the way, and Share was also in the news
recently for this Share was the musical guest on Saturday
Night Live last weekend, while Ariana Grande hosted the episode.
But the seventy which is unusual, by the way, you
would think because it's not I mean, it's not super common,
but occasionally you'll have a musical guest and a host

(03:35):
be the same person, you know, like you might have
Riyana Grande, because obviously she's a musician. You might have
her host and be the musical guest, you know, pulling
double duty. You see that once in a while, but
they didn't do that this time. Chare was the musical guest.
The seventy nine year old has been accused of lip
syncing during her performance of her twenty twenty three Christmas
track DJ Play a Christmas song, which left some fans disappointed.

(04:00):
Eddie and I thought the same thing as we were
watching it. Is she lip syncing it? Did? It? Did
appear that way? She isn't even singing. One person complained
on x this is some of the worst lip syncing
I've ever seen, regardless. I mean, even if she was
singing live, there was a lot of processing on her voice.

(04:22):
And I know her her huge monster hit song was
it Believe Do you Believe in Life After Love? You know?
That was like that's like got the auto tune dialed
all the way up on that song, and that kind
of became like her sound there in that moment. I
mean auto tune obviously during that period was used a lot.

(04:45):
It still is, I mean, but used like obviously where
you're actually supposed to hear the auto tune. That kind
of became the style and the vibe for a little while.
And you know, I think it sounds horrible and I
hate that song for that reason anyway. But yeah, so
some legal news, and of course the lip syncing. I mean,

(05:05):
you know, the lip syncing thing, Well, that'll blow over.
Nobody really cares that much. I'll tell you what. For
seventy nine years old, she still moves really well, so
I'll give her that. But I don't think she was
actually singing. But again, that's not a big deal. But
the legal wrangling, I didn't even know that that was
going on, that there was ongoing litigation between Mary Bono,
who was who Sonny was married to at the time

(05:26):
of his death, and Share. I did not know about that,
so that's interesting to me.