Ariana Grande’s hit song “7 Rings” has ten songwriting credits but 90% of the songwriting royalties for the track are going to the estates of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
The New York Times reports that Grande’s track interpolates the classic song “My Favorite Things,” from the duo ’s classic musical “The Sound Of Music,” which was written by the team back in 1959.
While the legendary songwriting duo obviously knew how to craft a hit song more than 60 years ago— it’s clear the recipe still works today.
Back in 2006, Gwen Stefani sampled yodeling from another song from the “The Sound Of Music” for her track “Wind it Up, which was produced by Pharrell Williams and ended up giving 50% of the royalties to the estate of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The New York Times claims that representatives from Republic (Grande’s music label) brought the song to Concord (the music company who owns the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s catalog since 2017) a few weeks before the songs scheduled release.
Concord requested 90% for the licensing of their song without further negotiations and received exactly what they asked for.
