{"id":10599,"date":"2026-05-06T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/jason-derulo-grilled-over-savage-love-credits-at-copyright-trial\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T19:32:08","slug":"jason-derulo-grilled-over-savage-love-credits-at-copyright-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/jason-derulo-grilled-over-savage-love-credits-at-copyright-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Derulo Grilled Over \u2018Savage Love\u2019 Credits at Copyright Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tJason Derulo sparred with an opposing trial lawyer on Tuesday (May 5) about who deserves credits and royalties for his 2020 chart-topper \u201cSavage Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe singer faced cross-examination in an ongoing Los Angeles federal trial over the credits for \u201cSavage Love,\u201d a viral TikTok hit from August 2020 that later hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to a remix featuring BTS. Matthew Spatola, who is credited as a session musician on the track, is alleging he\u2019s also entitled to writing and producing splits.<\/p>\n

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\n\tDerulo testified during his direct examination last week that while Spatola \u201cplayed a beautiful guitar and bass,\u201d the plaintiff \u201ccreated absolutely nothing\u201d for \u201cSavage Love.\u201d On Tuesday, it was the Spatola team\u2019s turn to question Derulo and push back on those claims.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDo you think that if you contribute creatively to a song, you should get writing credit?\u201d Spatola\u2019s lawyer, Christopher Frost<\/strong>, asked Derulo during the cross-examination.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love giving people their just due,\u201d responded Derulo. \u201cThe last thing that I\u2019ve ever wanted to do was take something from someone. If Mr. Spatola created the [melody], I would absolutely have given him credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two men went back and forth about whether Spatola\u2019s work did, in fact, rise to the level of creation. The exchange was at times combative \u2014 such as when Frost grilled Derulo about differences between the \u201cSavage Love\u201d guitar part played by Spatola and the synth guitar on the song\u2019s original source material: \u201cLaxed \u2013 Siren Beat\u201d by Jawsh 685.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMr. Spatola delivered organic guitar, yes or no?\u201d asked Frost.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe melody all existed in \u2018Laxed \u2014 Siren Beat,\u2019\u201d replied Derulo.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnswer my question,\u201d pressed Frost. \u201cNone of those instruments existed in \u2018Laxed \u2013 Siren Beat\u2019 in organic form, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe melody existed,\u201d Derulo insisted in his response, \u201cbut he re-played it on an organic guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDerulo and Frost sparred as well about the fact that Spatola never signed a so-called work-for-hire agreement, which under copyright law would have confirmed that he was only a session musician without any copyright ownership rights. Instead, Derulo merely texted Spatola after their April 2020 recording sessions asking, \u201c1K good each day?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019ve routinely had session musicians sign work-for-hire agreements, right?\u201d Frost asked Derulo.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t have knowledge of that,\u201d replied Derulo, adding that his business team normally handles paperwork. He said \u201cSavage Love\u201d was recorded at the height of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, \u201cso the people that would typically be in place to give him an agreement just weren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trial is slated to wrap up on Wednesday (May 6) with closing arguments from both sides. The jury will then begin deliberations to decide whether Spatola is right that he deserves creative credits.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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Jason Derulo sparred with an opposing trial lawyer on Tuesday (May 5) about who deserves credits and royalties for his 2020 chart-topper \u201cSavage Love.\u201d The singer faced cross-examination […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[429,7903,5185,7902,5184,146,2058,342],"class_list":["post-10599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-copyright","tag-credits","tag-derulo","tag-grilled","tag-jason","tag-love","tag-savage","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}