LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Sony Music on Friday disputed media reports that the label’s lawyers had admitted in court that their posthumous 2010 Michael Jackson album “Michael” contained vocals that were not actually recorded by the singer.
In a statement to Variety, Zia Modabbe an attorney representing Sony said, “No one has conceded that Michael Jackson did not sing on the songs. The hearing Tuesday was about whether the First Amendment protects Sony Music and the Estate and there has been no ruling on the issue of whose voice is on the recordings.”
According to Variety, the confusion regarding the source of the lyrics came from a statement by an attorney representing the Jackson Estate who made a hypothetical argument along the lines of “even if the vocals weren’t Jackson’s” during court proceedings on Tuesday.
The previously unreleased songs with the vocals in question are “Breaking News,” “Monster” and “Keep Your Head Up,” which Sony released in 2010 as part of a high profile ten album deal with the estate of the late King of Pop.
Since the album released, fans have questioned the authenticity of the vocals on the track, with some suggesting that the vocals were actually Jason Malachi, an Italian-American R&B singer.
Malachi himself threw fuel on the flames of speculation when a statement appeared on his Facebook page claiming the vocals were his, though he later claimed the page had been defaced by hackers.
The court hearing itself stems from a 2014 class-action lawsuit brought against Sony and other defendants by a fan, Vera Serova over the allegations.
Sony and its Epic Records label, on which the album was released, have long maintained that the vocals on the tracks were recorded by Jackson, a view which has been echoed by official statements from the Jackson Estate.
“We have complete confidence in the results of our extensive research as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael that the vocals on the new album are his own.” Howard Weitzman, an attorney for Jackson’s estate said in a statement in 2010.
