Singer Erik Karapetyan sues Azerbaijani who performed his song

Armenian singer Erik Karapetyan’s song, “Voch avel, voch pakas”, was performed by the Azerbaijani artist in Andrey Malakhov’s Sunday Show, broadcast by the Rossiya 1 state-owned channel. Karapetyan announced that he would initiate a lawsuit.

“The song has been illegally altered, distorted and performed in different languages and in different countries of the world without any permission for many years…I was silent. But my patience ran out when a few days ago, for the second time, without any permission, my song was played in a distorted version on the Russian state-owned channel Rossiya 1 in Andrey Malakhov’s Sunday Show. This time it was performed by Azerbaijanis. And the saddest and most shameful thing is that it was presented as an Azerbaijani song.

I wrote this song in 2018 in Yerevan. I am the author of the music, the lyrics were written by Grigor Kyokchyan. I have started a legal process, and, within the law, I will fight for my copyrights to the end.

I should note that using or modifying a work without the author’s permission is a violation of copyright and a distortion of the work. I am very sorry that many of our compatriots listen to these versions,” the singer said on social media.