Los Lobos Sues Sony for La Bamba & Desperado Royalties

Grammy award winning band Los Lobos is suing Sony for unpaid soundtrack royalties from the 1987 hit movie La Bamba (about the life of singer Ritchie Valens), and the 1995 film Desperado, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

"Los Lobos is seeking damages and a new global accounting, alleging that the unpaid amounts total at least $1.5 million and could reach as much as $2.75 million, or more."

In the La Bamba soundtrack lawsuit, Los Lobos claims it has not been paid streaming royalties from Sony Pictures Entertainment for the eight songs that they contributed to the movie soundtrack, outside of the United States and Canada. In 1987, their version of "La Bamba" from the soundtrack became the first Spanish-language song to hit #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The second lawsuit, which was escalated to federal court on Friday, alleges that Los Lobos recorded their song "Canción del Mariachi" (Mariachi Song) with Antonio Banderas in 1993, exclusively for the film Desperado, but it was subsequently released in 2004 as part of a compilation album by independent record label Milan Entertainment (Milan Records) without payment to the band.

Milan allegedly released the song again in 2018 under the name "Mexico and Mariachis" on streaming platforms. The song reportedly received 150 million streams on Spotify and 150 million streams on YouTube. Sony Music Entertainment has owned Milan since 2019.

"According to the complaint, interest in the song has skyrocketed in recent years after popular UFC fighter Ilia 'El Matador' Topuria adopted it as his 'walkout' song and 'anthem.' Topuria’s popularity purportedly caused the song to be used in TV programming in many countries, the lawsuit claims."

The lawsuit claims that the name of the Los Lobos song was again changed by SONY/Milan on streaming platforms including Spotify, to “Canción del Mariachi (Ilia Topuria ‘El Matador’ Anthem)".

"Los Lobos says worldwide streams of the song have topped 600 million, and based on the band’s contract, its revenue share of those streams would be $500,000 to $750,000," according to Rolling Stone.

"It’s asking the court for a chance to determine the precise amount through discovery and, if necessary, a trial. The band also wants a 24 percent cut of net revenues collected from any licensing deals related to the song."

La Bamba soundtrack album (left); Desperado soundtrack album (right)