Ukranian singer Aza suing Carly Rae Jepsen and others for copyright infringement of her song ‘Hunky Santa’ in Carly’s ‘Call Me Maybe’.

Oopsie! Carly Rae Jepsen is going to be receiving quite the phone call. Ukrainian singer Aza is suing Carly, along with her manager Scoot Braun  and co-writers of the song Call Me Maybe, for copyright infringement. She claims that the song is a “derivative” of her own song, “Hunky Santa”. Yeah… the song is as bad as it sounds. Take a listen:

For those of you that have been living under a rock this past year and have no idea what Call Me Maybe actually sounds like, take a listen below to compare the two:

Do you hear the copyright infringement? Because I don’t. Not only does Aza want ‘unspecified damages’, she also wants a court order “barring the parties from continuing to possess, distribute, sell, reproduce, advertise or promote “Call Me Maybe” around the world.” Aza provided “E! News with the following statement about her lawsu

“I’m shocked and surprised that these people wanted to sample my lyrics on “Call Me Maybe”. They didn’t ask me for permission—they just stole it. That’s why I filed this lawsuit. When I first listened to it on the radio while driving my car, I almost got into an accident. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”

This girl is crazy, and clearly just looking to cash in on Carly’s fame and riches. The only lyric even remotely similar is, “here’s my number”. Nothing else about the song is remotely similar to Call Me Maybe. I think it’s safe to say that Carly isn’t going to have to pay her a dime. And if for some crazy reason any court awards Aza anything from this lawsuit, I will be completely shocked.

This isn’t the first lawsuit Carly Rae has received for copyright infringement. According to an article on MTV News, Allyson Nichole Burnett is a singer/songwriter who claims her song ‘Ah, It’s a Love Song‘ was copied in Owl City’s new song ‘Good Time‘ which features Carly as a vocalist. Allyson is claiming that the song copies a “unique vocal motif” and “identical pitch sequence … melodic contour … rhythmic construction … [and] timbre”. She is also saying that she suffered from “emotional and psycological” damages because fans of her music started asking her why she was copying Carly. I always hate when people claim “emotional damages” over something like this, but whatever. She would like a collective trust to be established so that she is able to take in royalties from the song. Since the song is currently a huge hit, she could be looking at a huge profit if she wins her case.

Here are the songs for you to compare for yourselves:

Billboard goes into quite a lot of details over this lawsuit in an article on their site:

Burnett’s song is in the key of F while “Good Time” is in the key of E flat, but other shared features are noted, including an identical pitch sequence (5-3-5-3-2), melodic contour (down, up, down, down), rhythmic construction (8th rest, 8th note, 8th note, 8th note, 8th note, 8th rest, quarter note), timbre (textless vocals) and so forth.

I think Allyson has a case. While there are some underlying similarities, her song has been out for about two years now and the “Oh oh oh oh oh”s are pretty much the same in both songs. That alone could help her case, and I’m interested in seeing how this all plays out. I happen to like Allyson’s song, so if nothing else at least she gained a new fan from the lawsuit.