Beyoncé Sued in the U.S. Over Alleged Unauthorized Sample on ‘Alien Superstar’

A lawsuit filed in the United States alleges that Beyoncé’s 2022 track ‘Alien Superstar’ contains an unauthorized sample. The complaint, brought by Hirose Enterprise and producer Shuji Hirose, claims the singer’s team used a spoken-word introduction from the song ‘Moonraker’ by John Holiday without securing the necessary rights.

According to the filing, Beyoncé’s representatives obtained a license from Holiday weeks after the album Renaissance was released. However, Hirose asserts that Holiday had transferred ownership of the song to him decades earlier, making that license invalid.

‘Alien Superstar’ appears on Renaissance, Beyoncé’s seventh studio album. The record was supported by the Renaissance World Tour, which became the highest-grossing tour by a female artist at the time, a record later surpassed by Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour.

In 2024, Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter, her first country album. The accompanying Cowboy Carter Tour, which began in April, became the highest-grossing concert tour of the year and included a high-profile NFL Christmas Day halftime performance.

Beyoncé has won 35 Grammy Awards and recently earned her first Emmy for the Netflix special Beyoncé Bowl, moving her closer to EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) status. In December, she reached billionaire status, becoming one of only five musicians to cross that threshold alongside Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Bruce Springsteen, according to Forbes.