A Hungarian singer suing over Beyoncé's “Drunk in Love” single with Jay Z has lost her case, reports the New York Post. The performer, who goes by Mitsou, sued for damages last year under New York’s Civil Rights Law, claiming “irreparable harm and emotional distress.” 

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However, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern ruled the record a “constitutionally protected work of art,” making the use lawful in that the law “does not apply to works of literary and artistic expression,” Kern wrote. “It is undisputed that the ‘Drunk in Love’ song and video are works of artistic expression and, pursuant to well established law, they are therefore exempted from the Civil Rights Law.”

Over a minute of Mitsou’s voice from her 1997 recording "Gypsy Life on the Road" was sampled and distorted for the beginning of Bey's five-and-a-half-minute long track without permission. Kern wrote that the use “does not vitiate their character as works of artist expression.”

The Grammy-winning “Drunk in Love” appeared on Beyoncé's surprise self-titled album from 2013.

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 (Photo: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)