Madonna sued over 'Vogue'

MARIA SAEED

KARACHI: Madonna is being sued by a record company which claims she used a sample of one of their hits in her 1990 chart-topper “Vogue”.

Twenty-plus years after releasing the iconic song, a Delaware-based company VMG has filed suit against the Queen of Pop and her onetime label WB Records, claiming the track samples the 1977 song "Love Break."

Vogue was produced by Shep Pettibone, who also worked on remixes of "Love Break" and is named in the suit as well.

“The portions of 'Love Break', which have been copied into 'Vogue' and all its various mixes, remixes, videos, YouTube versions, etc. are numerous but intentionally hidden," the suit from VMG read. "The horn and strings in 'Vogue' are intentionally sampled from 'Love Break' throughout."

According to media sources, the company claims it has had to wait so long to take the issue to court because the sample is not obvious and was only isolated thanks to new technology.

VMG Salsoul is suing for copyright infringement and is demanding unspecified damages.

Madonna and label WB records were sent notices of copyright infringement in July 2011, and again in February 2012.

The Material Girl’s team has yet to comment on the suit. The Singer is currently on a world tour promoting her hit-album ‘MDNA.’