Artists drag Davido to US court over alleged song theft, demand $150k, others

Nigerian musician David Adeleke, professionally known as Davido, has been given 21 days to appear before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan in order to address allegations of intellectual property theft.

Four Nigerian musicians—Martins Chukwuka Emmanuel, Abel Great Umaru, Kelvin Ayodele Campbell, and David Ovhioghena Umaru—filed the case, alleging that Davido had stolen their 2022 song “Work” and used it to compose his own soundtrack, “Strawberry on Ice,” in 2024.

Along with Carlos Jenkins, Matthew Quinney, Marques Miles II, and Wynn Records—the record label in charge of publishing and distributing the song “Strawberry on Ice”—Davido was sued alongside Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, better known by his stage name as Emmerson, who was featured on the musician’s song.

The case began in January 2022, when the plaintiffs, acting in good faith, offered Davido the demo of “Work” as part of a possible partnership between the parties. This was spurred by the group’s pursuit of a significant musical breakthrough.

The plaintiffs claim, that instead of collaborating with the group, that Davido took the music to Emmerson without their consent. Emmerson then used the song’s recorded vocal and instrumental parts to sample and steal their own version of “Strawberry on Ice.”

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The plaintiffs claim they immediately contacted Davido in an attempt to settle the matter amicably, and after several months, they were able to speak with the Grammy-nominated artist. And that on March 14, 2025, he agreed to pay the group a lump sum of $45,000 in settlement, according to court documents.

Davido also consented to pay the plaintiffs 20% royalties for the song’s sound recording and 40% royalties for the song’s underlying composition of “Strawberry on Ice.” Nevertheless, Davido did not carry out his end of the bargain, even though he had promised to pay before the mutually agreed-upon deadline of March 24.

The multiple award-winning musician and his co-defendants were sued in New York on April 4 by the plaintiffs as a result of Davido’s acts.

In their documents, the plaintiffs request that the court declare Davido and his co-defendants to have violated “Work’s” intellectual property. In addition to $150,000 in damages, they want to give plaintiffs 20% of the song’s sound recording copyright and 40% of the compositional copyright to “Strawberry on Ice.”

The plaintiffs also requested that the court prohibit the singer and other defendants from engaging in any additional infringement of the group’s copyrights or from taking any involvement in any future actions that would violate the plaintiffs’ copyrights.

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