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Music

Lana Del Rey Says Her Radiohead Copyright Dispute Is Over and Done With

"Now that my lawsuit's over, I guess I can sing "Get Free' any time I want, right?"
Lana Del Rey photo by Neil Krug via PR / Thom Yorke photo via Flickr 

Wild how quickly you forget the speed of the news cycle's churn. At the start of this year, Lana Del Rey and Radiohead headlines were lurching between ‘yes, Radiohead are suing Lana for copyright infringement’ to ‘no, they just want a songwriting credit’ and ‘hang on, Lana said they wanted 100% of the credit for writing “Get Free”'. This all had the audacity to play out at that time of year when most well-adjusted people were barely coping with being back at work after a week or so away over the festive season. If you missed it, congrats.

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And yet, between 7 January and 10 January, Lana stans buckled up for the rollercoaster ride of defending their queen against accusations of lifting the chord progression and loose melody from Radiohead’s “Creep.” Keep in mind, this all started with a Sun entertainment story that we described at the time as “skimpy and anonymously sourced.” The story alleged that an unnamed source believed Radiohead were considering suing Lana, to get themselves a writing credit or compensation.

On 7 January, though, Lana tweeted: “It’s true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by Creep, Radiohead feel it was and want 100 percent of the publishing – I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court.” Radiohead’s team denied filing a lawsuit, saying instead that they were looking to give the band a writing credit.

We of course butted in by publishing a very scientific study of who’s better, between Lana and Radiohead. But because life is a gift that endlessly gives, this chapter has reopened. Over the weekend, while playing Lollapalooza in Brazil, Lana hinted that the whole situation has now been resolved. According to the BBC, while (of course) lighting a cigarette onstage during her set, she said, ”Now that my lawsuit's over, I guess I can sing that song any time I want, right?" after playing “Get Free” in her encore. We’re not ready for this back and forth to start up again, so have contacted Lana’s reps asking for a comment. We need answers. In the meantime, jam to Radiohead's well known 90s classic “Get Free” below.

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