SPB is on a world tour titled SPB50.
Renowned Indian playback singer SP Balasubramanyam (SPB) who is currently in the US as part of a world tour, received a legal notice from attorney representing music director Iliaya Raja stating that he is not supposed to perform the composition of Raja without prior permission.
According to a Facebook post of SPB, who did shows in Seattle and Loss Angeles last week, he won’t sing any songs composed by Iliaya Raja during the rest of the performances until there is a clarity on the copyright law.
SPB said, “Couple of days back, an Attorney representing Shri.Iliaya Raja, sent legal notices to me, Smt.Chithra, Charan, organizers of the concerts in different cities and the managements of all the venues, which says that we are not supposed to perform compositions of Shri.Iliayaraja without his permission, if so, it is breaking the copyright law and have to pay huge financial penalties and face legal action. Let me say, I am ignorant of these legalities.”
The world tour titled SPB50 started off in August in Toronto and the singer has been performing in countries such as Russia, Sri Lankan, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai etc. Since then, SPB said, he did not receive any notice from Raja during any of these events and asks why he is issued a notice when the tour started in the US.
“If it is a law, so be it and I obey it,” SPB said in his Facebook post confirming that he and his troupe will abstain from singing Isaignani Ilayaraja’s compositions during rest of his tour.
“In these circumstances, our troupe cannot perform Isaijnani’s compositions from today. But the show should happen. By God’s grace I have sung lots of other composer’s songs too which we will present,” said SPB in his post.
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