The unknown singer taking on Katy Perry in federal court spoke to In Touch exclusively about the four-year legal battle and the toll it has taken on her life.
Musician Michele Ronk who sued Katy (real name: Katheryn Hudson), Universal Music and various other defendants in October 2020.
Michele, who filed her initial complaint without the assistance of a lawyer, claimed she wrote a song called “Upgraded 2.0” in 2014. In her suit, Michele said she posted her song, based on her life experiences, online.
Michele said the song “told a heartfelt story of enduring a dark and hard beginning, learning lessons, and triumphantly and thankfully becoming a new person through the help of Jesus.”
Katy, 40, released a song “Smile” in July 2020. Michele claimed the pop star’s track was strikingly similar to hers. Michele claimed that Katy’s song used 12 similar story elements, or lyrical phrases that “make up the selection and arrangement and tell the story.”
In court, Michele also claimed that Katy and her team chose “different synonyms, at times, to attempt to obscure the similarities in the misappropriated lyrical phrases and selection of elements to the story.”
Katy and the defendants denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
In early 2022, the judge granted Katy’s motion to dismiss the case. Michele recently filed an appeal of the decision demanding the decision be overturned and the case remanded to the lower court.
Michele tells In Touch, “This last four years has been a challenge as I’ve had to reflect deep within how to move forward as an aspiring artist now. Not trusting that my songs are safe online I’ve stopped sharing them online the way I used too, which has hurt my growth for an audience.”
She continued, “As well as my family having to use money from our house equity to pay for the high lawyer fees we had plans to pay for our daughters college in full and the things my family has had to endure with these choices of moving forward with a public lawsuit, with a big label attacking my name for fighting for what I believe is my testimony song.”
Michele’s lawsuit demanded unspecified damages and an injunction against Katy from continuing to profit off “Smile.”
As part of her defense to the case, Katy’s team said while Michele likely connected with the lyrics of “Smile,” it did not mean the pop star stole her music.
The attorney continued, “but because [Michele] had also written a song about a similar struggle, ‘Upgraded 2.0,’ that shared a handful of common words with ‘Smile,’ [Michele] mistook coincidence for copyright infringement.”
In the decision to dismiss the case, the judge ruled “the court finds the identified lyrical passages of ‘Upgraded 2.0’ and ‘Smile’ are not sufficiently similar to establish striking similarity and a presumption of access, as a matter of law.”
On October 23, Michele filed her appeal and it now being represented by a legal team. She asked the higher court to determine if the lower court judge made an error in dismissing her case. Katy has yet to respond to the appeal.
As In Touch previously reported, Katy is preparing to testify at phase two of her trial with an 85-year-old disabled veteran.
