Popular Nigerian singer, David Adeleke, better known as Davido, has been dragged to a US court for allegedly stealing a song.
The Yoruba-born singer was summoned by a U.S. federal court to appear in New York within 21 days in response to allegations of intellectual property theft and breach of a settlement agreement.
Charming Magazine gathered that court documents filed at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, four Nigerian artists — Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru — accused Davido of stealing their 2022 song, Work, and using it to create his 2024 track Strawberry on Ice.
The plaintiffs claimed they shared a demo of Work with Davido in January 2022, hoping for a collaboration. Instead, they allege that Davido recreated the track without permission, collaborating with Sierra Leonean artist Emmerson Amidu Bockarie (professionally known as Emmerson), and incorporating both the instrumental and vocal elements of the original demo.
Others named in the lawsuit include Emmerson, Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, and Wynn Records — the label responsible for publishing and distributing Strawberry on Ice.
The artists said they reached a settlement with Davido on March 14, 2025, which required him to pay $45,000 and grant them 40% of the compositional royalties and 20% of the sound recording royalties from the song. However, Davido allegedly failed to fulfill the agreement by the March 24 deadline.
The group filed a lawsuit on April 4, seeking $150,000 in damages, a declaration of their intellectual property rights over Work, and the transfer of 40% of the compositional and 20% of the sound recording rights of Strawberry on Ice to them. They also asked the court to bar Davido and his co-defendants from using or profiting from the song in the future.
As of Thursday, Davido had not publicly responded to the allegations. Wynn Records also declined to comment.