Superstar Afrobeats vocalist David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has responded to his summons by a United States court to appear in New York regarding allegations of stealing the 2024 soundtrack and defaulting on a financial obligation amounting to $45,000 (N71m).
Recall that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan had mandated Davido, to present himself within 21 days to address accusations pertaining to intellectual property infringement.
As per the legal documents acquired by Peoples Gazette, the litigation was instigated by four Nigerian musicians—Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru.
The plaintiffs have charged the singer with the unauthorized appropriation of their 2022 composition ‘Work.’ They assert that Davido utilized their creation to produce his own work, entitled ‘Strawberry on Ice,’ which was released in 2024.
In an effort to amicably resolve the dispute, the plaintiffs promptly initiated contact with the singer and, after several months of attempts, successfully established communication with the Grammy-nominated performer. According to judicial records, a settlement agreement was finalized on March 14, 2025, wherein the DMW boss consented to a lump sum payment of $45,000.
Furthermore, Davido committed to allocate 40% of the royalties derived from the underlying composition of “Strawberry on Ice” and 20% of the royalties from the sound recording of the song to the plaintiffs. Nevertheless, Davido failed to fulfill the stipulations of the agreement, despite providing assurances of payment prior to the mutually established deadline of March 24.
In light of these developments, Davido utilized the insta-stories feature of his official Instagram account to express his sentiments. In the Instagram post, Davido conveyed that he remains undeterred by the situation while simultaneously updating his followers regarding the pendant he intends to create for his forthcoming album “5ive.”
Reposting a post by bennydajeweller, it was accompnaied with the caption; “Biggest, pendant in the world about to be done for @davido for the 5 album, let us go.”
See the post below;
