Madonna 'plagiarised tune'

2005-05-19 07:41

Brussels - A Belgian songwriter took Madonna to court on Wednesday claiming she plagiarised a tune he wrote with her worldwide 1998 hit Frozen.

Salvatore Acquaviva says that several bars of the song are lifted directly from a tune he wrote five years earlier called Ma vie fout l'camp (My life's getting nowhere).

"I was in the bath. I was listening to the radio, and thought that's strange, I know that melody. I said it's not possible," he told the RTL television station.

On Wednesday he had his day in court in the southern Belgian town of Mons, where his lawyers argued that Madonna may have heard his song because she met his producer in the late 1970s.

The US diva's lawyers rejected the claim, alleging Acquaviva was just trying to make a quick buck.

"Just because there are similarities between two songs it doesn't mean it has been plagiarised," said attorney Fabienne Brison.

"There are certain artists who hear songs on the radio, see that they are very successful and say to themselves, 'why shouldn't I try it on?'" she told the station.

The judge delayed hearings on the case until next month, after some of the lawyers were late arriving in court.

In the meanwhile royalties for the Madonna song in Belgium have been frozen, RTL said.

- AFP