After his conviction for plagiarism, Gilbert Montagné loses all his rights to his biggest hit

It is a song which, 40 years after its release, has 55 million plays on Spotify and more than 8 million views on YouTube. However, its composer, Gilbert Montagné, has just lost all his rights to the title. We explain why.

Bad news for Gilbert Montagné: one of the hits that made him known, We're going to love each otherstill as successful as ever, will no longer be able to benefit him. As revealed The Informedthe singer, as well as the author of the text of the song, Didier Barbelivien, were definitively condemned for plagiarism by the Paris Court of Appeal. This court decision follows a first conviction by the Italian courts in 2012, which ruled that the famous singer's hit was far too similar to another song released seven years earlier, A girl from France…

This title, performed by the Italian singer Gianni Nazzaro, actually presents disturbing similarities with the emblematic song by Gilbert Montagné. However, it is not the singer of the song, now deceased, who will now receive the exploitation rights in France and the rest of the world, but the authors of the title, Michel Cywie and Jean-Max Rivière. Through their lawyer, both were delighted with this “fair decision”which orders Gilbert Montagné and Didier Barbelivien to pay 30,000 euros to the plaintiffs – who demanded 1.6 million euros…

Is Gianni Nazzaro here?

Through this affair, the public rediscovers Gianni Nazzaro, who died in July 2021. Singer and actor, originally from Naples, this artist is far from equaling the success of Gilbert Montagné. Nevertheless, during his long career, which spanned from 1965 to 2018, the Italian singer recorded seventy-nine singles and thirteen albums, while venturing into cinema, then in musicals, before starting a career on Italian television. It should be noted that in 1975, Gianni Nazzaro found success in France with another song, Romanella.