In performances and music videos for the song, Cynthia was no where to be found.

In the first video they have random black girls dancing, but it’s never suggested they are the singer of the song.

And in the second video, they’d have Debbie Jenner appear. She is a dancer from the Netherlands, and in this video they passed it off as though she were the one singing.

They even went as far as making Debbie lip sync in live performances on the song, further pushing the idea it was her song

To add salt to the wound, Cynthia Johnson was no where to be found on the cover for the single

Cynthia has come forward and confirmed that she wasn’t even approached to do a music video for Funkytown.

The plan all along was to make it seem as though Debbie the Dutch girl was the true singer of the record all along. Today, Cynthia is invited to perform the song and was even invited to perform at a Super Bowl concert

3. Martha Wash & Body Discrimination

Martha Wash is someone who has such an amazing voice that’s been all over the industry, she really should be known as an icon

However Martha was snubbed multiple times throughout her career, having producers use her demos or pay her as a “background vocalist”, only to then make entire songs off of her vocals

Martha rose to prominence when she joined the duo The Weather Girls. They dominated disco (and queer) culture with their hit It’s Raining Men

And because of that icon behavior (and copyright) we will have a SHORT clip

Throughout the late 80s and 90s Martha would sing background vocals for her record label, but somehow her voice constantly got passed off for the [skinny] main singer’s voice

The Dreamland album by Blackbox featured many tracks that used Marsha’s voice as the main vocals

And yet all covers featured everyone else BUT Martha

And in C&C Factory’s 1991 hit Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) Martha can be heard doing all of the chorus vocals and yet wasn’t credited or paid accordingly

You can even see a model lip syncing to the chorus and ad libs

Martha would eventually end up suing for the misappropriation of her work

4. Michael Jackson & Somebody’s Watching Me

This one isn’t necessarily someone’s vocals being stolen, but rather gifted

In the 1980s with the success of Off The Wall & Thriller, Michael Jackson was at the height of his career

In 1984 the artist Rockwell released his single Somebody’s Watching Me.

And on the song, you can hear a very familiar voice

No one knows exactly how Michael got involved, but the song became a hit as fans immediately recognized his voice

It’s possible that Michael wanted to prove his worth by going anonymous on a song (instead of having his legacy from childhood to lean on)

However, Michael wouldn’t do it alone. Jermaine Jackson is also said to have attributed background vocals on the song. No one knows where and I don’t think many people care. Sorry Jermaine.

5. I was going to include Milli Vanilli in this thread, but their story is so messy it needs its own thread. Plus, so many people have covered it so I’m sure you’ve heard what happened.