The hotel heiress faced legal action for alleged similarities between the songs
UB40‘s Ali Campbell has spoken out about the time Paris Hilton faced legal action for alleged similarities between her song ‘Stars Are Blind’ and the band’s 1989 song ‘Kingston Town’.
The hotel heiress’ debut single, which was released in 2006, garnered a lot of attention due to it sounding very similar to UB40’s popular cover of Lord Creator’s 1970 song.
“It really was a total lift,” Campbell told NME in a new interview. “When I heard it, I said what almost everybody does: ‘Wow! That’s more or less ‘Kingston Town’ all the way through’.”
He added: “It was almost comical. I don’t know who sued her – it wasn’t us.”
At the time, it was wrongly stated that UB40 were the suing party, which the band later confirmed as being incorrect. It was actually the copyright holders of the song, Sparta Florida Music Group, who started legal proceedings against Hilton and Warner Chappell Music for plagiarism.
Elsewhere in the interview, Campbell recalled the time Gwen Stefani turned up at the House of Blues to see UB40 perform, declaring herself a fan of the Birmingham reggae pop band.
