Beyonce's Performace of "At Last" at Inaugural Ball

Following Beyonce’s performance of the song “At Last” at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball, Etta James started a feud with Beyonce for “singing her song.” What seemed like an attack by James on Beyonce for copyright infringement turned out to be nothing of the sort. At a concert in Seattle on January 28th, following the inauguration, James publicity stated, “I tell you, that woman he has singing for him, singing my song, she gonna get her ass whipped…I can’t stand Beyonce, she had no business up there singing my song that I’ve been singing forever.”

What was most surprising about James’ reaction to Beyonce’s performance at the Inaugural Ball was the fact that Beyonce had sung “At Last” many times before. Etta James praised Beyonce for her performance in the movie Cadillac Records in which she portrays James, singing many of her popular songs including “At Last.” It seems that James became very territorial over a song that was not even debuted by her. It also seemed to bother James that Beyonce sang “her song” at such an important event such as the Inaugural Ball. James said, “Like I said, she ain't mine... I can't stand Beyonce. She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol' president day...” James and Beyonce are pictured together below at an event for Cadillac Records.


Had Etta James owned the copyright to the song, “At Last” there could have been a potential copyright infringement case here if Beyonce had not received permission to sing the song. However, James does not originally sing the song. The writers of “At Last” are Mack Gordon and Henry Warren. Some of their ‘40s hits include, “You’ll Never know” and “The More I See.” The tune “At Last” was first performed by Glenn Miller and his orchestra in 1941 and later by Nat King Cole in 1957. Etta James considers “At Last” to be her “trademark song,” however she initially sang her version in 1961 and was evidently not the first person to perform the song. After the words were said about Beyonce, James later issued a statement to the New York Daily News saying she “didn’t really mean anything” by it – hard to believe!

The Copyright Act of 1976 states that copyright becomes property of the author as soon as the work is finished. Had James written the song and assumed copyright she could potentially have a case against Beyonce. However, it seems that James was just bitter about Beyonce singing a popular song of hers at the Inaugural Ball! Interestingly enough this is not the first situation like this Beyonce has found herself in. At the 2008 Grammy Awards, Beyonce referred to Tina Turner as the “the queen” and Aretha Franklin brought about controversy because she is known as the “queen of soul.” There was also no case here – Franklin does not have a trademark on the title “queen of soul!”

To read more about the controversy sparked by Beyonce’s performance of “At Last” at the Inaugural Ball, here are a couple of articles:

NBC Los Angeles

Vh1