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The Weeknd reaches settlement in copyright lawsuit

A pair of musicians who previously sued The Weeknd for copyright infringement have settled.

Suniel Fox and Henry Strange - whose real names are Neil Fox Parakh and Shyhi Henry Hsaio - announced in a Friday filing obtained by Billboard they have settled their copyright lawsuit against the Call Out My Name singer.

Previously, Parakh and Hsaio claimed in a September 2021 complaint that The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, had copied the lead guitar and vocal hooks from their 2017 track Vibeking for use in his 2018 hit without credit or permission.

On Friday, however, lawyers for the songwriters updated a Los Angeles federal court on the matter, saying they had "reached a settlement in principle of this action".

The filing did not reveal the terms of the songwriters' settlement, as the two camps were reportedly "still in the process of formalizing, executing, and consummating" the deal.

In their original lawsuit, Parakh and Hsaio cited alleged evidence The Weeknd had listened to their song before creating Call Out My Name. They provided a string of emails between themselves and The Weeknd's playback engineer, who they claimed replied, "I sent (The Weeknd) that track u made a while ago. He listened and liked it. But nothing ever happened."