U.S federal court has given Nigerian musician, David Adeleke who is professionally known as Davido, 21 days to respond to allegations of intellectual property theft.
The lawsuit, filed by four Nigerian artists, claims Davido stole their 2022 song “Work” and used it to create his 2024 track “Strawberry on Ice”.
The dispute began in January 2022 when the plaintiffs shared a demo of “Work” with Davido, hoping for a collaboration. However, they allege that Davido passed the song to Sierra Leonean singer Emmerson, who sampled the vocals and instrumentals without permission to create “Strawberry on Ice”.
The parties reached a settlement agreement on March 14, 2025, where Davido would pay $45,000 and give the plaintiffs 40% of the compositional royalties and 20% of the sound recording royalties for “Strawberry on Ice”. But Davido missed the payment deadline, prompting the plaintiffs to file a lawsuit on April 4, seeking $150,000 in damages and a court order to transfer partial copyright ownership.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to:
– Declare that Davido and his co-defendants infringed on their intellectual property rights
– Transfer 40% of the compositional copyright and 20% of the sound recording copyright for “Strawberry on Ice” to them
– Ban Davido and other defendants from further infringing on their copyrights
