U.S. court summons Davido to New York for stealing 2024 soundtrack, failing to pay $45,000 debt

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan has given Nigerian singer, David ‘Davido’ Adeleke, 21 days to appear before it to answer charges of intellectual property theft, according to legal filings sighted by Peoples Gazette.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of four Nigerian artistes, Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell and David Ovhioghena Umaru, who accused Davido of stealing their 2022 song ‘Work’, which he allegedly used to create his own soundtrack titled ‘Strawberry on Ice’ in 2024.

Davido was sued alongside Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, professionally known as Emmerson, featured on the musician’s song, Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II and Wynn Records, the music agency responsible for publishing and distributing the “Strawberry on Ice.’’

According to the legal filings, the matter started in January 2022 when the plaintiffs, in good faith, gave Davido the demo of ‘Work’ as part of a potential collaboration between parties, prompted by the group’s search for a major breakthrough in the music industry.

However, the plaintiffs claimed instead of working with the group, Davido, without permission, took the song to Emmerson, who proceeded to steal and sample individual recorded instrumental and vocal elements of the ‘Work’ to create their own version “Strawberry on Ice.’’

To resolve the issue amicably, the plaintiffs immediately reached out to Davido and were finally able to get hold of their Grammy-nominated musician after several months and he subsequently entered an agreement with the group to pay a lump sum of $45,000 in settlement on March 14, 2025, court documents showed.

Davido also agreed to give the plaintiffs 40 per cent of royalties for the underlying composition of “Strawberry on Ice” and 20 per cent royalties for sound recording of the song. However, Davido failed to fulfill the terms of the agreement despite promising to pay before a March 24 deadline agreed upon by all parties.

Davido’s actions prompted the plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against the singer alongside his co-defendants in New York on April 4.

In their filings, the plaintiffs are asking the court to rule that Davido and his co-defendants infringed on the intellectual property of “’Work.’’ They are also seeking $150,000 in damages and the transfer of 40 per cent of “Strawberry on Ice” compositional copyright and 20 per cent in sound recording copyright of the song to plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs also asked the court to ban the singer and other defendants in the case from further infringing group’s copyrights, or from participating in actions that would infringe the plaintiffs’ future copyrights.

Davido did not return a request seeking comments from The Gazette on Wednesday while a representative for Wynn Records also declined comments.