Last month, it was reported that three Michael Jackson songs — long alleged by fans to have been performed by session singer Jason Malachi and not Jackson — had been removed from the legendary pop star's posthumous 2009 album, Michael.
At the time, Jackson's estate and Sony Music said that the songs being removed had "nothing to do with their authenticity," and were pulled in an attempt to quiet the "distracting" conversation about their legitimacy.
A class-action lawsuit had even been filed way back in 2014 by Jackson fan Vera Serova over the allegedly fake vocals, accusing Sony and Jackson's estate of violating false advertising laws. An appeals court then ruled in 2018 that it didn't actually matter whether Jackson was singing on the tracks — "Breaking News," "Keep Your Head Up," and the 50 Cent collaboration "Monster" — or not.
However, Xavier Becerra, California's Attorney General at the time, wrote a brief supporting Serova's lawsuit, and both sides were left awaiting a decision by the California Supreme Court.
Now, a settlement has been reached in the case before that Supreme Court decision could be made, with Sony and the estate saying today (August 10) that both they and the plaintiffs had agreed to formally end the lawsuit.
The actual numbers aren't available, but Sony and Jackson's estate released a new joint statement to Billboard that doubles down on their previous assertion that removing the tracks was simply a way to "move beyond the conversation associated with these tracks once and for all."
At the time, Jackson's estate and Sony Music said that the songs being removed had "nothing to do with their authenticity," and were pulled in an attempt to quiet the "distracting" conversation about their legitimacy.
A class-action lawsuit had even been filed way back in 2014 by Jackson fan Vera Serova over the allegedly fake vocals, accusing Sony and Jackson's estate of violating false advertising laws. An appeals court then ruled in 2018 that it didn't actually matter whether Jackson was singing on the tracks — "Breaking News," "Keep Your Head Up," and the 50 Cent collaboration "Monster" — or not.
However, Xavier Becerra, California's Attorney General at the time, wrote a brief supporting Serova's lawsuit, and both sides were left awaiting a decision by the California Supreme Court.
Now, a settlement has been reached in the case before that Supreme Court decision could be made, with Sony and the estate saying today (August 10) that both they and the plaintiffs had agreed to formally end the lawsuit.
The actual numbers aren't available, but Sony and Jackson's estate released a new joint statement to Billboard that doubles down on their previous assertion that removing the tracks was simply a way to "move beyond the conversation associated with these tracks once and for all."
