Industry News

Leona Lewis and her record label, Simon's Cowell's Syco, have settled a high profile legal dispute with Swedish dance music producer and DJ Avicii over the "Bleeding Love"-singer's new single, "Collide."
 
Avicii, whose real name is Tim Bergling, had applied to the British High Court for an injunction preventing "Collide"'s release on the grounds that it copied one of his songs, an instrumental track, originally entitled "Penguin," without permission.

Syco and Lewis' team denied the allegation, stating that Avicii was well aware of the forthcoming release and was to be credited as a songwriter on "Collide." Lewis backed up her label's stance, taking to her Twitter feed to say, "With regards to my song, Avicii was aware & agreeing publishing splits for himself and his manager."
 
That claim was hotly disputed by Avicii's manager, Ash Pournouri, however. According to a statement published by the BBC last week, Pournouri said Syco had not received permission to copy his client's work. The issue was further complicated by the fact that Avicii's "Penguin" samples an instrumental song by British act Penguin Café Orchestra.
 
Pournouri told the BBC that he was "under the impression that they [Syco and Lewis] were going to sample the original."

"They ended up copying our version," he added. In an additional twist, Avicii was planning to release the a vocal version of "Penguin," re-titled "Fade Into Darkness," later this year via U.K. indie Ministry of Sound. 

The matter has now been resolved with Syco and Avicii understood to have reached an out of court agreement, which will see the pair team-up for the single release. 
 
"It is announced today that Leona Lewis and Avicii will work together on the forthcoming single Collide," reads a statement from Syco. "Collide will be released on September 4th. Since getting its first radio play in the UK it has received rave reviews and is already topping club charts across the country.