A singer-songwriter named Steve Ronsen is claiming Lady Gaga ripped off one of his songs to write “Shallow” and is reportedly threatening to sue her.
Page Six reports that as of yesterday the song, titled “Almost,” had fewer than 300 plays on SoundCloud (now, that number is up to 27,000, so if he was looking for attention, he certainly got it.) Ronsen claims that “Shallow” steals the chord progression G, A, B. It’s true that both songs share that, but so does Kansas’s “Dust in the Wind.” You can’t copyright a chord progression, however as songwriters and artists saw with the “Blurred Lines” and Marvin Gaye case, there is now a legal precedent for someone to make the case that they can be stolen.
But Rosen would also have to prove that Gaga had access to his song to allegedly plagiarize it. He’s reportedly looking for “millions and millions” of dollars in a settlement and Gaga’s team is calling it a “brazen shakedown.”
Please, like we didn’t all see Ally write that song in the supermarket parking lot!