Coldplay reject plagiarism claims over new single

Coldplay have rejected claims that their new single borrows from a Euro house hit, explaining they paid the songwriters for permission. A spokesperson for the band has confirmed that Peter Allen and Adrienne Anderson are credited on Coldplay's Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall, after Chris Martin was inspired by the 1990 dance single, Ritmo de la Noche.
It didn't take long for accusations of plagiarism to surface: within hours of Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall's debut on Friday, bloggers were pointing out its similarity to Ritmo de la Noche by Mystic. But Mystic's own single was recycled: Ritmo de la Noche is based on a riff from Allen and Anderson's 1976 tune, I Go to Rio.
The track was a hit in Australia and was later covered by Peggy Lee, Claude François and even the Muppets.
"Allen and Anderson are credited as writers on Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall," Coldplay's spokesperson said. "Chris was inspired to write the song after watching the film Biutiful by Alejandro González Iñárritu. In the film, there is a nightclub scene in which a track [Ritmo de la Noche] is playing in the background, based on I Go to Rio."
Things were more complicated when Coldplay were accused of copying a song by Joe Satriani in 2008. The American guitarist claimed the band's single Viva La Vida plagiarised his 2004 instrumental track, If I Could Fly. Though Coldplay insisted similarities were "entirely coincidental", the case settled out of court in 2009. Coldplay have also been accused of copying a song by Cat Stevens and a music video by singer-songwriter Dan Gallagher. Neither claim resulted in litigation.

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