The legal scandal between Wellboy and the producer PAPA MUSIC

Anton Velboy is a charismatic personality, a 23-year-old singer (as of the date of this article) performing under the pseudonym Wellboy, in 2019 he participated in the talent show X-Factor (season 10). Already in 2021, he began a collaboration with music producer Yuriy Bardash, which resulted in the hit song “Geese,” which quickly soared into the TOP 20 most popular Ukrainian songs on digital streaming platforms, including Apple Music, and the video for the song, directed by Yevhen Triplov, has garnered more than 18 million views in a relatively short period of time (as of the date of this article’s publication, 40 million views). For 2023, Wellboy has a long list of well-known and recognizable tracks, including “Cherries,” “Home,” “Yellow Mallows,” “Who Are You,” and others.

Anton was born into a rather musical family: his mother graduated from piano class, and his father plays guitar and often worked at weddings. So, it’s no surprise that Wellboy started singing early, in kindergarten, then at school, and was quite good at hitting the notes. He also started playing the guitar himself. For the singer, his music is the easiest way to express his thoughts, as he himself noted in an interview: “Someone expresses them in architecture, someone in fine art, and I express them in music. And this is not my only method – I am a director by training, my head works”.

On February 11, 2022, Wellboy presented his new song and video “Nozzy Bossy” for the final of the National Selection for Eurovision 2022 and became one of the finalists of the National Selection of Ukraine for Eurovision 2022.

PAPA MUSIC and Wellboy – the beginning of problems

Cooperation with Yuriy Bardash, who at the time of 2021 was a co-founder (participant) of PAPA MUSIC LLC, led Wellboy to sign a production contract with the production company PAPA MUSIC, which also became the owner of the trademark (the artist’s stage name) – “Wellboy”. After the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Yuriy Bardash fled Ukraine and sided with the occupying country, and the company’s management initiated the process of acquiring Bardash’s share in the company’s authorized capital (50%), which, in the absence of the latter in Ukraine, became a rather problematic and long-term process. As of the date of publication of this article, 100% of the company’s ownership is owned by Oleksiy Golubev (information taken from open registers of legal entities).

In April 2023, Wellboy, unexpectedly for everyone, announced that he was terminating his cooperation with PAPA MUSIC, continuing to work with Marta Ostankova, and later accused her of fraud, while the singer’s producer Yevhen Triplov stated that Marta Ostankova lured the artist, as she was fired from the project back in 2022 (no official reasons were given – from alcoholism to financial fraud), and according to the producer, she is a rather “vindictive” person. Marta Ostankova herself has not commented on Anton Velboy’s accusations on social media about her fraudulent actions.

The reason Wellboy left PAPA MUSIC was that one of the label’s founders was working with former Ukrainian producer Yuriy Bardash.  To preserve their good name, the label filed a complaint with the SBU against themselves to prove that they have no ties to russia, and they issued an official statement in response to the singer’s accusations:

“In order to stop the dissemination of false information that degrades the business reputation of the company and its executives, we decided to submit appropriate applications to the Security Service of Ukraine to check the company, Alexey Golubev and Roman Breus for ties to the Russian Federation.  We have nothing to hide.

Yes, Oleksiy Golubev and Yuriy Bardash used to be partners and launched the Wellboy project together, but that’s the past. Let’s be honest, most of the Ukrainian show business has worked with Bardash. The process of withdrawing a partner from the company is not as simple as dismissing a director when the shares are split 50/50 and one of the partners has fled the country.

However, as it turned out, Yuriy Bardash had not been paying child support for a long time, which is why, as provided by law, the executive service offered Oleksiy Golubev the first to purchase Yuriy Bardash’s share in GOLBAR ENTERTAINMENT LLC as part of the enforcement proceedings.

We have nothing to hide, the truth is on our side, and we have filed applications for an inspection with the Security Service of Ukraine. We will make the results of the checks public”.

Later, the label published an official response from the SBU, which stated that at the request of GOLBAR ENTERTAINMENT LLC, appropriate checks of the above-mentioned persons were carried out and no documented evidence of the activities of such persons to the detriment of national security was found.

However, Wellboy was not going to “rewind” and the process of a serious conflict with PAPA MUSIC was launched, which led to a lawsuit.

What did the court say?

In September 2023, Anton Velboy shared on the Radio Promin show “Weekend of New Music” that he had “fallen into a legal trap” by collaborating with the music label PAPA MUSIC, with which he still had a contract at the time. Streaming platforms blocked his single “People on Earth” the day after its release, and YouTube removed the video for the song (directed by Sashko Bagaziya). It should be noted that the singer also changed his pseudonym to Anton Velboi, but did not change his repertoire and continued to perform the songs “Geese”, “Cherry” and others, the rights to which belong to the PAPA MUSIC label. Anton Velboi noted that the situation with his rights can only be resolved by the court.

“I had and still have a contract with PAPA MUSIC. It has not been terminated. I thought that if I released the song under a new name, wrote the music and lyrics myself, and no one else had anything to do with it, I would succeed. But it turned out that it wasn’t that simple. For example, a distributor can call a distributor demanding that a musician’s track be removed from all platforms because he is their artist. And no one will refuse, because, for example, PAPA MUSIC or Best Music have the authority to influence the music industry in our country. That’s why the track was deleted and the video was blocked on YouTube”, That’s why the track was removed and the video was blocked on YouTube,” the Artist says.

The musician also noted that he came up with his own pseudonym, Wellboy. He appeared with it on the X Factor show long before the release of the songs “Geese”, “Cherries” and others, but we remind you that since July 22, 2021, PAPA MUSIC has already been the owner of the trademark for the lyric title “Wellboy”.

The artist sought to reserve the right to perform under the pseudonym Wellboy in the lawsuit and prevent the blocking of his content. In addition, Wellboy explained why he decided to end his cooperation with Papa Music:

“I want to terminate the contract because when I signed it, I didn’t think it was that complicated. I thought it was like a job. And if you can’t stand it, you can quit. But it turns out that it’s not like that”.

Anton Velboy and the PAPA MUSIC label found themselves in court, which was initiated by the production company. The court hearings began in June 2023, but the decision on PAPA MUSIC’s lawsuit against the musician was made in November 2023. On November 13, 2023, the judge of the first instance granted the label’s claim and ordered Velboy to pay about 165 thousand hryvnias in court fees and 300 thousand dollars (almost 11 million hryvnias) for the early termination of the contract No. 11/10/22 of 11.10.2022.

The label’s lawyer announced this on his social media page on November 21, 2023:

“Well, I’m very happy to announce that although it’s not over yet, we have reached a certain “checkpoint”. Last week, the court of first instance satisfied the claim of the PAPA MUSIC label against Anton Velboy and ordered Anton to pay compensation in the amount of $300,000 for early termination of the contract”.

And if you were expecting the singer to go ahead and appeal against the decision of the court of first instance, you were… wrong.

Again, as with everything related to the scandal between Wellboy and PAPA MUSIC, on November 30, 2023, the label announced on its Instagram page that it had reconciled and resolved the situation with the singer and stated the following:

“The scandal is over! @papa.music.ukraine and @a.wellboy shook hands. The two parties have decided to continue their cooperation. The WELLBOY project, represented by Anton Wellboy, will continue to exist and will give more than one hit to its fans”, reads the post on PAPA MUSIC’s Instagram page.

Before that, the label clarified that if the singer filed an appeal, it would only complicate the situation between him and PAPA MUSIC, but the following statement was an “act of mercy” to the artist: “…we are ready to meet Anton Velba halfway in resolving this issue and create loyal conditions for him to work off the awarded compensation and successfully continue his music career…”, as the label noted on its Instagram page on November 21, 2023.

However, a new lawsuit against Wellboy’s PAPA MUSIC label appeared in the court register on November 26, 2023, where the artist and his lawyer are suing to declare the production agreement No. 11/10/22 of 11.10.2022 invalid. What does this mean? It means that if this claim is satisfied, it will directly affect the decision in the case where the artist has already lost 11 million to the producers. We can only expect a real legal battle or mutual legal reconciliation.

Instead of conclusions

What was it? The artist’s shortsightedness, lack of experience working with serious labels, fatigue from the producers’ “pressure” to work hard, where the singer receives only a certain share of the income? Was the PR department’s move to attract active consumer attention both to itself (they had to find a reason why the label itself was applying to the SBU to check its own owners) and to the artist, who might have been losing his ratings, very well thought out and balanced?

We will never know the truth. But the fact remains that before signing any contract, especially one as complex and serious as a production agreement, be sure to show it to an independent lawyer, preferably a specialist in the field of intellectual property. This will save you from unfortunate misunderstandings and possible litigation, which takes time, money, and most importantly, nerves. As for the artist’s name, you all know that TM registration should be exclusively for the artist himself, if he invented it himself and wants to protect it.  Our company specializes in registering trademarks, copyrights to songs, and drafting various types of agreements – from transfer of rights to works to production agreements, and provides services for analyzing and amending such documents. Contact us to avoid falling into the “legal trap” that the hero of our article fell into.

agreement / copyright / court / intellectual property / PAPA MUSIC / producer / scandal / Wellboy