Tom Waits has failed to halt a hit Paris show he accuses of using his songs without permission, court sources have said.



The US songwriter, famous for his croaky “cigarettes and bourbon-soaked” voice and his ballads from the underbelly of life, wanted the acclaimed equestrian show On Achève Bien les Anges (roughly translated as They Shoot Angels, Don’t They?) pulled.

He is also demanding half a million euros ($562,000) in damages.

The show, a mix of dance, circus and theatre using horses and actors, was a huge critical success last year for the world-famous Zingaro troupe.

Its theme of death and laughing in the face of horror came in the wake of the first Paris terror attacks. It is set to begin a new run later this month at Zingaro’s specially built theatre in north-east Paris.

Waits, 66, said Zingaro had used 15 of his recordings without asking him and had also been inspired by the downbeat “universe” of his ballads.

“I had the feeling someone had emptied my pockets while I had my head turned,” he told the French edition of Vanity Fair magazine last month.

Bartabas, founder of the Zingarop troupe, performing in On Acheve Bien Les Anges, Elegies” (They Shoot Angels, Don’t They?) . Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

Zingaro, which is led by the charismatic director, Bartabas the Furious (real name Clement Marty), had denied any wrongdoing.



The theatre’s lawyer, Sophie Viaris, told AFP that it had got authorisation to use the songs from the relevant French authorities and had paid “considerable royalties”.

In a statement after the ruling, she welcomed the court’s decision which rejected the bid to halt by show by Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan.

“Bartabas and Theatre Zingaro vigorously contest what Tom Waits has said in the press,” she said, adding that they had contacted the singer long before the piece was created.

Days after the show opened jihadist gunmen massacred 90 people at the Bataclan concert hall in a wave of attacks on the French capital that left 130 dead.

Viaris said several attempts had been made to mediate the dispute amicably and that Bartabas was “extremely pained by this affair”.

She said they had never attempted to hide the American singer’s influence on the show.

The court ordered Waits and his wife to pay Bartabas and Zingaro €2,500 each in costs, a court source told AFP.

The ruling does not affect a separate case the singer is bringing against the theatre for using his work without his permission.