Entertainment Africa
The Controversial Kenyan preacher Gilbert Deya is taking legal action against American pop star Beyonce.
Pastor Deya claimed that he owns the rights to the song recorded by Michelle Williams featuring Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland titled Say Yes. He is also claiming that Beyonce stole the tune of ‘his song’ titled When Jesus Says Yes.
“I am an author. I have also written very good songs. If you go to YouTube you will see a song that Beyonce took called, When Jesus Says Yes. That’s my song….
On legal action he said, “I shall think of that, I have written 200 songs, and they are really Westernized,” said Deya.
Say Yes
Say Yes is not Beyoncé’s song.
It was done by Williams for her 2014 album Journey to Freedom. She only featured her former Destiny’s Child group mates.
According to the producer of Say Yes, Harmony Samuels, William’s version was sampled from a Nigerian tune, When Jesus Says Yes, credited by various sources to be the original version of the song.
Samuels told Unexpected Michelle that Williams came about it as she was headed to Nigeria.
“The opportunity came to work on Michelle’s album, which is awesome. She was going to Nigeria to do something and I told her to sing that (When Jesus Say Yes). She had a moment in the studio literally out on the floor praising Jesus. I was like wow this song is powerful. She was like, “You have to produce this for me.” We produced the record and for 12 months we didn’t know what to do with it. She was like, “This is very different” and I was like, “Maybe you should go to Africa and release it. They’ll get it,” said Samuels.
Pastor Deya is out on bond after stint in Kamiti Maximum Prison after he was extradited from the UK over child theft charges.
