Some days ago, an unfortunate incident was brought to light by songwriter and singer Gia Koka. A sought-after artist who has worked with the likes of Afrojack, Imanbek, Sam Feldt, Sigma, Yellow Claw, and more, Gia Koka has immense experience within the music industry, and was shocked to see German duo VIZE steal a topline she wrote for them, and release it in a song titled ‘Devil’s Cup’ with vocalist Leony after some minor adjustments.
Taking to social media, Gia Koka threatened to take legal action and showed screenshots of emails proving that a release featuring her topline was explicitly acknowledged by VIZE’s management team. She also played the original vocal she had sent earlier this year, proving the similarities between that and the topline sang by Leony (the videos and social media posts have since been taken down.)
In a fortunate turn of events, VIZE recently acknowledged their wrongdoing and announced that they would be re-releasing the song, properly compensating every songwriter that contributed towards bringing it to life. They offered their side of the story, explaining how Gia’s topline contained an interpolation of a 17th-century melody called ‘Leven Polka‘. They assumed that it belonged to the public domain, and therefore released the song without letting Gia Koka know, and rightfully compensating her.
