One of the biggest legal battles surrounding modern worship music has officially come to an end-and Sinach is walking away with a decisive victory.
The Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division, has dismissed a copyright lawsuit challenging ownership of the globally beloved worship anthem "Way Maker," ruling that the award-winning gospel artist is the song's sole author and copyright owner.
The case centered on claims that another party should be recognized as a co-author or co-owner of the international worship hit. However, the court found that the plaintiff failed to provide sufficient evidence to support those claims.
According to the judgment, "Way Maker" had already been written and publicly performed by Sinach before the plaintiff was hired in 2015 to provide mixing and mastering services for the album's release. As a result, the court concluded that those technical contributions did not amount to authorship of the song itself.
In a significant clarification of copyright law, Justice A. Lewis-Allagoa emphasized that authorship belongs to the person who creates the original musical expression. The judge noted that production, engineering, mixing, and other technical services-while important to the finished recording-do not automatically create ownership rights unless they involve creating original expressive content.
The court dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety, reaffirming that Sinach alone owns the copyright to "Way Maker," one of the most influential worship songs of the past decade.
Following the ruling, Sinach and her management expressed gratitude to their legal team for successfully defending the case and securing the favorable judgment.
Released in 2015, "Way Maker" has become a global worship phenomenon, recorded in multiple languages and covered by countless artists and church worship teams around the world. The song surged to even greater international prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming an anthem of hope for millions of believers.
With the lawsuit now behind her, Sinach can celebrate not only another courtroom win, but also the legal confirmation that the song which has impacted churches across the globe remains unmistakably-and officially-hers.
