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The legendary singer-songwriter, with a little help from friends Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, performed an outstanding three-hour show on Thursday, June 16th at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
It is the most-sung song in the world. Everyone across the globe has crooned it. Image Credit: Raymond B
According to a source as eminent as the Guinness Book of Records, it is the most famous English song. Translated into 19 languages, sung in over 143 films and hundreds of adverts, it is also, as we know, a tune which brings as much shame as it does happiness. What we do not know as much, is that this must-have song at children’s parties is also one of the most lucrative in history. Up until 2015, singing “Happy Birthday” in public could cost you dear, very dear. And according to law, you could have had to pay up for singing this out loud, for instance in a restaurant. Before this date, the Warner/Chappell Music label held the rights for the song which brought in some 2 million dollars per year. Some exploitations were billed at over 100,000 dollars. And there was no way around it. Neither “Happy Birthday” by Stevie Wonder too hard to sing for novic
While much can be said about the ethics of copyrighting the "Happy Birthday to You" song we all love, something else can be asked: What made it so valuable?