Prince to Pay for Plagiarism?
Prince’s single “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” released in 1994, was ruled by an Italian judge to have been plagiarized from a song written by two Italian writers, Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino. The case has yet to go through a final hearing, and if during that hearing Prince is found to have plagiarized the two writers, he will have to pay back royalties to the writers and their publishers.
The Court of Appeal in Rome ruled that Prince had borrowed heavily from Bergonzi and Vicino’s song, “Takin’ Me to Paradise.” Bergonzi told Billboard.com,
“Our song was first released in 1983, at the height of the Italian dance boom and it appeared on assorted compilations that were distributed internationally. When we first heard Prince’s song we immediately took action, but this case has been dragging on for 15 years and it isn’t over yet, such is the slowness of the Italian legal system. We only decided to go public with our story now.”
In 2003, the Italian court ruled against the writers’ claims that their song had been plagiarized, and this new ruling is the result of an appeal on that ruling. Though the current ruling was made in December of 2007 and finalized last February 11, the Italian writers have only now made their case public. In Italy, a “third degree” ruling is necessary to finalize a sentence, which means this case could be in court for years yet.
Where I can hear this Takin’ Me to Paradise, so i can decide myself.
Hi Momchil,
We tried to source the song on most video sites like youtube etc but couldn’t find it for this article.
If you find it online can you post back here for other readers?