Music Company Sues Over Alleged Unauthorized ‘Renaissance’ Sample in Beyoncé’s ‘Alien Superstar’
Music Company Sues Over Alleged Unauthorized ‘Renaissance’ Sample in Beyoncé’s ‘Alien Superstar’
Beyoncé’s acclaimed Renaissance album became the center of a copyright dispute after a music company alleged that an unauthorized sample was used in the singer’s hit song “Alien Superstar.”
The lawsuit focused on the opening spoken-word section of “Alien Superstar,” which was allegedly taken from “Moonraker,” a 1998 house track by musician John Holiday, who has performed under the names Foremost Poets and Johnny Dangerous.
Hirose Enterprises, which claimed ownership of rights connected to “Moonraker,” filed the lawsuit in July 2025 against Beyoncé’s entertainment company Parkwood Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Chappell Music and Holiday. Beyoncé herself was not named as a defendant.
According to the allegations, the plaintiff claimed that Holiday did not have the authority to license the disputed material because the rights had previously been assigned to another entity. The lawsuit alleged that “Alien Superstar” used the sample without proper authorization.
The disputed audio appears at the beginning of “Alien Superstar,” a track from Beyoncé’s 2022 album Renaissance. The song includes a spoken announcement associated with the original “Moonraker” recording. Beyoncé’s album credits already listed Holiday as a writer, but the lawsuit argued that the necessary rights to use the recording had not been properly secured.
However, the legal dispute did not ultimately result in a ruling on whether the sample was actually unauthorized.
In June 2026, a federal judge dismissed the case after finding a procedural problem with the plaintiff’s standing. Hirose Enterprises had been legally formed only after the lawsuit was filed, meaning the court determined that it could not proceed with the action as presented. The judge therefore did not decide the underlying copyright question or determine whether Parkwood had improperly cleared the sample.
The case highlights the complicated legal issues surrounding music sampling, where ownership of a recording and the right to license portions of a song can involve multiple parties.
For major releases such as Renaissance, even a short piece of sampled audio can raise significant copyright questions when ownership records, licensing agreements and publishing rights overlap.
For now, the dismissal means there was no judicial finding that Beyoncé’s “Alien Superstar” unlawfully used the “Moonraker” sample. The court’s decision was based on the plaintiff’s lack of standing rather than the merits of the copyright allegations.🎶
