Carrie Underwood sued for copyright infringement over football theme song

NEW YORK - Country music superstar Carrie Underwood, the National Football League and NBC were sued on Wednesday (June 19) for copying an identically titled song to record a Game On theme song used in 2018 for Sunday Night Football.

Heidi Merrill, who uploaded her Game On to Google's YouTube in March 2017, said her copyright was infringed after Underwood's producer Mark Bright rejected her August 2017 pitch at a conference in Nashville to use the song for Sunday Night Football.

In their complaint, Merrill and her co-writers said Underwood's Game On is "substantially - even strikingly - similar, if not identical" to their song.

Bright and music publishing affiliates of Sony and Warner Music Group are among the nine defendants named in the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.

Underwood has performed theme songs for Sunday Night Football since 2013.

The singer, who became famous by winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005, has since won dozens of country music awards and seven Grammys.