Tory Lanez Accused By George Michael’s Estate

The Estate of George Michael wants a sample of ‘Careless Whisper’ removed from Tory Lanez’s album ‘Alone At Prom.’

The Toronto native Tory Lanez has come under criticism again for using unlicensed samples on his ’80s-themed album ‘Alone At Prom.’

The estate of the pop icon George Michael has requested that a song be removed, saying that “Enchanted Waterfall” uses a piece of “Careless Whisper,” which is the 1985 chart-topper from Wham! and was undoubtedly Michael’s signature hit.

Lanez’s song, which appears to have comparable vocal melodies, was released in 2021 on his album Alone at Prom. Michael’s team, along with Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley is attempting to have the song pulled from streaming sites due to a “unauthorized sample.”

Variety received the following statement from the George Michael estate: “It was brought to our attention that the song “Enchanted Waterfall: by the artist Tory Lanez incorporated an unauthorized sample of “Careless Whisper” written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. The requested permission for this use had been declined in June 2021 so we took immediate action on behalf of the writers, in collaboration with our publishers Warner Chappell Music, to prevent further exploitation as we will not tolerate any unauthorized use of any songs within the catalogs of George Michael and/or Andrew Ridgeley.”

Basically, the George Michael’s estate claims that they had already denied Lanez request to utilize the sample, despite the fact that the song was released beyond the estate’s wishes.

This is not the first time Lanez has been chastised for his album ‘Alone At Prom’ after Madonna blasted the Toronto rapper on Instagram for copying her song “Into The Groove” on “Pluto’s Last Comet.”

To grab Lanez attention, Madonna even wrote him an Instagram text saying “Read your messages tor illegal usage of my song Get into The Groove!” later adding in a comment to Rolling Stone, “I am tired of being taken advantage of and I mean business.”

The song “Enchanted Waterfall” is no longer available on Spotify, however, it is still available on Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube.