Beyoncé Hit with Lawsuit Over Allegedly Unauthorized Sample

Photo Credit: Raph_PH / CC by 2.0

Beyoncé is being sued over an allegedly unauthorized sample on her 2022 hit “Alien Superstar” from Renaissance.

A lawsuit has been filed against Beyoncé for allegedly using an unauthorized sample in the track “Alien Superstar” from her 2022 album, Renaissance. The filing claims that Beyoncé sampled a “spoken-word introduction” and that her team failed to license the sample before releasing the album.

The lawsuit was filed by a company called Hirose Enterprise and a producer named Shuji Hirose, alleging that Hirose owns the rights to a song called “Moonraker” by a musician named John Holiday. Although the 44-year-old superstar secured a license weeks later from Holiday, Hirose claims that Holiday had transferred the rights to the song decades prior.

Hirose also alleges that despite being notified of the infringement, Beyoncé and her team have continued to sell the record. He is seeking an injunction to prevent further monetization of the track, along with unspecified damages.

Renaissance was Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, released in 2022. It served as the basis of her historic Renaissance World Tour, which concluded in October 2023. The tour temporarily held the honor of the highest-grossing tour by a female artist—but that record was quickly shattered by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

Despite achieving a career high with Renaissance, the superstar took a gamble on an unexpected creative turn in 2024 with the release of Cowboy Carter, her first foray into country music.

Beyoncé recently concluded her Cowboy Carter Tour, which kicked off in April in support of her eighth studio album. The record created even more opportunities for the songstress, including a high-profile NFL Christmas Day halftime performance and the highest-grossing concert tour of the year.

Last summer, Beyoncé achieved yet another career milestone as she moved one step closer to EGOT status. She has earned a total of 35 Grammy Awards thus far and recently nabbed her first Emmy win for Netflix’s Beyoncé Bowl special, the company’s broadcast of her Christmas Day performance.

In December, she officially achieved billionaire status, further cementing her position as one of the most powerful musicians in the world. According to Forbes, she is just one of five musicians to cross the ten-figure threshold, alongside her husband Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Bruce Springsteen.