Court documents show that the famous country music superstar and former American Idol winner is being accused of stealing a major song of her career and using it without giving credit to the proper person.
The accuser, Heidi Merrill, has filed a lawsuit against Carrie Underwood, The NFL, NBC, and others over their use of the new Sunday Night Football theme song titled “Game On.”
She claims that the song is a very clear infringement on her copyrighted song of the same name – which she wrote in 2016 and first uploaded to YouTube in early 2017.
https://twitter.com/OfficialRayLos/status/707939861207117824
Merrill has found success in music – and specifically sports music – with her song “Cornhusker Strong” from 2015. According to TMZ, Merrill says that she wanted to continue down that channel and ride the success out, so she sat down and came up with a new song, “Game On.”
The lawsuit claims that Merrill met with Underwood’s own producer in Nashville at an August 2017 event. This is where she inquired if Underwood was looking for a new song for the upcoming 2018 NFL opener. She says that later, she submitted her song to the producer (Mark Bright), but was told they weren’t interested in it.
Carrie Underwood’s “Game On” used for the NFL Sunday Night opener came out in September 2018 – much to Merrill’s surprise, the suit says.
While Carrie Underwood’s team hasn’t issued an official statement, Merrill’s claim alleges that the Underwood/NFL version is “substantially similar, if not identical” to her own.
No word on how much Merrill is suing for, but the suit names Underwood, her producer, NBC, and the NFL among others as defendants.
Check out Carrie Underwood’s “Game On” for NBC below and let us know if you think it’s similar to the “Game On” by Merrill above.