Lionel Richie Contacted Lawyers Over Adele’s ‘Hello’

Lionel Richie has admitted (well, joked) that he contacted his lawyers about trademarking ‘Hello’ after Adele’s comeback single of the same name.

Copyright [Rob Rich/WENN.com]

Talking to The Sun, he joked: “You can’t use my word without my acknowledgement, thank you very much.

“I have been trying to figure out, from a legal point of view, can you own a word? So far all the lawyers have told me, ‘No’. I’ve tried… but the association is fabulous!”

He added that the two ‘will meet’ - hopefully for a duet - at some point, saying: “When she’s on tour I’ll catch her backstage.”

Adele has been caught up in another plagiarism row recently, with some fans accusing her of copying Kurdish artist Ahmet Kaya’s 1985 song Acilara Tutunmak in her ‘25′ album track ‘Million Years Ago’.

One social media user, for example, wrote: “Million Years Ago has too much similarity with Ahmet Kaya’s Acilara Tutunmak to be just a coincidence @Adele.”

The Mirror reports that Gulten Kaya, the wife of Ahmet who died 15 years ago, told Turkish newspaper Posta that she didn’t believe the similarities between the two songs were intentional.

However, she added that “if she consciously did it, then it would be theft.”