Lady Gaga\u00a0is being threatened with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by an unknown songwriter who claims the melody of her Oscar-winning song \u201cShallow\u201d from her hit movie \u201cA Star Is Born\u201d was stolen from a song he released in 2012.<\/p>\n
The nine-time Grammy-winning artist has been hit with a legal threat by songwriter Steve Ronsen who claims just a few notes \u2014 specifically, a three-note progression \u2014 in \u201cShallow\u201d is based on his song \u201cAlmost,\u201d which appears to have fewer than 300 streams on SoundCloud as of this writing. The three notes \u2014 G, A, B \u2014 correspond to the hook of \u201cShallow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n Ronsen and his attorney Mark D. Shirian are asking for \u201cmillions and millions\u201d of dollars in a settlement, we\u2019re told, while threatening to go public with their claims, in a move that Gaga\u2019s team is branding as a \u201cbrazen shakedown.\u201d<\/p>\n Gaga, 33, has hired NYC power attorney Orin Snyder, who says the superstar will not back down.<\/p>\n Snyder said, \u201cMr. Ronsen and his lawyer are trying to make easy money off the back of a successful artist. It is shameful and wrong. I applaud Lady Gaga for having the courage and integrity to stand up on behalf of successful artists who find themselves on the receiving end of such [claims]. Should Mr. Shirian proceed with this case, Lady Gaga will fight it vigorously and will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n While Ronsen claims he originally wrote the three-note progression that appears in \u201cShallow,\u201d Gaga\u2019s legal team points out that \u2014 while his song sounds nothing like \u201cShallow\u201d \u2014 this progression is common and can be heard in musical pieces dating back centuries. It can also be heard on Kansas\u2019 track \u201cDust In The Wind,\u201d released in 1978.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost\u201d songwriter Ronsen appears to be a prolific working musician who had a solo album released in 2012, and now is the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for a touring Nashville band. He could not immediately be reached.<\/p>\n When contacted by Page Six on Thursday, Ronsen\u2019s attorney Shirian provided the following statement:<\/p>\n \u201cIn an effort to amicably resolve this matter months ago, my office provided Lady Gaga\u2019s legal team, at their request, with an official report from a renowned and respected musicologist and professor who determined that there are significant tempo, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic similarities between the two \u2018hooks\u2019 of the songs at issue. Lady Gaga\u2019s team has yet to provide my office with an opposing musicologist report, which we have requested multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShallow\u201d was recorded by Gaga and\u00a0Bradley Cooper, released in 2018 as the lead single from the soundtrack of their movie from the same year, \u201cA Star Is Born,\u201d and became the foundation of the film\u2019s deep love story.<\/p>\n\n It was written by Gaga, Mark Ronson \u2014 the successful producer also known for \u201cUptown Funk,\u201d no relation to Ronsen \u2014 Dirty Pretty Things member Anthony Rossomando and Miike Snow\u2019s Andrew Wyatt, who have described how Gaga first played the melody to them in a studio two years prior, in 2016.<\/p>\n Gaga\u00a0told the LA Times, \u201cWhen I wrote that song with Mark and Anthony and Andrew, it was different from any other experience I\u2019ve had writing a song. There was a grave nature to the room. I was at the piano, the guys each had a guitar in their hands and we started coming up with lyrics and talking to each other. That\u2019s really what the song is. It\u2019s a conversation between a man and a woman. But we didn\u2019t know that when we started.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n \t