LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) – After an 8-year-long lawsuit stemming from a Michael Jackson fan suing Sony and the late singer’s estate over recordings the label released that were allegedly “faked” by someone else has finally been put to rest.
Billboard reports that Sony Music and the estate formally agreed to end the lawsuit. The deal between the parties came after waiting for a decision by the California supreme court, which heard both arguments in May.
The long-running dispute over the authenticity of vocals on the posthumous Michael Jackson album is finally over. The lawsuit claimed that three songs on 2010’s album Michael were not performed by the King of Pop himself.
Ever since the release of Michael, some listeners have questioned whether the three songs, “Breaking News,” “Keep Your Head Up,” and “Monster,” were genuinely sung by Jackson. The three tracks were produced and recorded by Eddie Cascio, who has repeatedly asserted that it was indeed Jackson behind the microphone.
The lawsuit in 2014 by Vera Serova accuses Cascio and his production company Angelikson Productions LLC of creating fake songs. Serova alleges that the vocals were made by session singer, Jason Malachi, who appeared to admit he performed on the songs in a Facebook post from 2011, which has since been deleted and that his manager said was “faked.”
In a joint statement to Billboard, Sony and the late singer’s estate said: “Regardless of how the supreme court may rule, the parties to the lawsuit mutually decided to end the litigation, which would have potentially included additional appeals and a lengthy trial court process.”
The settlement comes a month after Sony removed the three disputed tracks from the album. They added that removing the songs was “the simplest and best way to move beyond the conversation associated with these tracks once and for all.”
Neither side provided any details on the terms of the agreement. Jackson died in June 2009, aged 50, at his home in Los Angeles.
