The truth about the accusation of plagiarism of Michael Jackson against Albano Carrisi
We do not know many things about Michael Jackson, and much of what we know is incorrect…
He was too often flanked by teams of lawyers known for extortion and fraud, allegations, not to mention the bunch of so-called public relations officers who seemed to make their best to help the press to bring out negative or fake news all over the world. Another hoax they failed to dab is the one I’m going to explain in here:
It was 1992 when Michael Jackson was accused of plagiarism by an Italian singer named Albano Carrisi. The strange affair seems to have happened after the son of this singer listened to the song “Will you be there” and found a strong resemblance with a song his father composed in 1987 called “I cigni di Balaka (The Balaka swans) sang together with Romina Power. MJ’s song was published on November 26, 1991 on the “Dangerous” album and sold 32 million copies worldwide.
Following Albano charges in 1994, the Civil District Court of Rome ordered the withdrawal of Michael’s album from the Italian market and Sony, which owned the rights to it, had to re-issue a new album version without the faulty song. (You have to be aware that in Italy plagiarism is a criminal offence, so automatically we had the procedures on MJ, civil and criminal.) However in 1997 the Court of Rome, following MJ’s deposition which had taken place at the District Court of Rome, revoked the 1994 seizure order because it was missing, as a matter of fact, reliable and convincing proof that MJ had been even aware of Albano’s music. A few months later, the Court of Milan ruled that there was not a real plagiarism as both songs were devoid of originality being inspired by old American blues pieces by then “copyright free”.
On that occasion, Albano was sentenced to pay all court expenses but then in May 1999, the Criminal Judge in Rome Mr. Mario Frigenti went on Albano side after the experts compared the songs and noticed the presence of as many as 37 consecutive identical notes in the choruses. For these reason the plagiarism was established and MJ was sentenced to pay a fine four million of lire (about 4000 US dollars). It was not granted the request of five billion of Italian liras (about 5 millions of dollars) requested by Albano for the damages suffered.
(Suffering damage??? Come on!!!)
Meanwhile and again in November 1999,the Milan Court of Appeal confirmed the 1999 sentence which proclaimed the songs in question devoid of originality so no plagiarism was made by MJ. The story, therefore, clarified that the artists, both without knowing, had composed their songs based on their personal musical knowledge (b.’ s.n.: the judgment states: “… the specific musical elements of the Albano song that’s it in the Jackson one, do not even meet a modest level of originality required for copyright protection…. The claim for damages of the appellant must therefore be rejected ...” http://193.205.211.30/lawtech/images/Plagi...20integrale.pdf
Albano was sentenced to pay all court expenses since he was the one who began the problem. It seems MJ helped with it. The legal issue, however, could have end to the Supreme Court, but the two artists made a confidential agreement that led to the final closure of the matter. Later Albano told the media about an agreement reached between them for a concert in favor of the abused children in the world, which has never happened and I do not believe because MJ have NEVER mentioned such a possibility’.
Finally in 2001, ended also the criminal prosecution in Rome with the overturned the 1999 judgment and the final acquittal of MJ for the accuse of plagiarism crime. A strange story in which, probably, Albano tried, since there was a real similarity between the two songs, to get a bit of free advertising in the world. Following the trial, Albano said he never believed that Jackson was inspired by his song but that some other people, close to him, gave him the track telling him it was unpublished.
Probably, the judgment given in court, is very close to the real course of the events as it appears difficult to think that MJ was aware of the existence of Albano and even less of his music, never been published in the United States. The idea of both songs was taken from an old African American song of the group “The Ink Spots” devoid of copyright; “Bless You For Being An Angel” dated 1939.
Listen the below links and you will catch immediately the similarities:
Ink Spots - Bless You For Being An Angel
Michael Jackson - Will You Be There
Albano -I Cigni di Balaka
Furthermore, the similarities are more between the original song and Michael “Will you be there”. How could Michael Jackson know Al Bano?? Only because they shared the same label? And how many artists Sony have under contract in the world?
The fact is a great mystery and disgusting are Al Bano attitudes because still to this day he’s got the nerve to lie on a story he completely fabricated.
During a television program he made “clever”, not transparent and equivocal statements clearly with the only purpose to make the audience believe that the ‘”agreement” made out outside the court and that could not be disclosed due to a confidentiality clause, was intended to stop the procedure. This is absolutely false! The Italian fans not only did not believe to his story but sent an informal warning to the singer because of this false and unclear statement. He was also the subject of a funny gig by a well-known Italian entertainer, Riccardo Rossi, who starts the gig telling to the audience:
“It ‘s something crazy and absurd… you remember very well this strange thing that one day Albano thought that MJ had copied one of his song …a crazy thing..so it came out in the news, there was a legal issue and everything else. For this reason I would like to remind to all of you WHO’s Michael Jackson IS:
MJ is someone that among its collaborators has Paul Mc Cartney who gave to him a song a gift … then he has Stevie Wonder who go to play harmonica for him even if for just few notes. He ‘s got Quincy Jones, the largest producer of black music of all times who produced for him his first three albums one of which, I remind you, is Thriller which is the best-selling album in the history of the world of music, so I wonder … . How Michael Jackson does know that Albano exists????”
He keeps on his sketch imagining Quincy Jones, who must be informed of all tendencies in music because of his work, which for some strange reason listens and decides to bring this piece of crap of Albano song to Michael Jackson. When finally the two decide how to arrange the song and everything‘s organized MJ refuses to pay royalties to Albano and says “I do not care, I want to copy”, Quincy Jones screaming at him: “Michael it will cost $ 400, the rights for this song for God sake! And MJ “NO I want to copy if not I do not do it”
The gig ends with the actor saying: “MJ, the man who bought the rights to all the Beatles songs, decided to steal a song to Albano in order to save $ 400" LOL????
Nevertheless this piece of work of Italian singer had the gut to post on his Facebook account some pictures take before Michael Jackson Memorial in Munich …..very sad ..
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