A collection of unreleased Marvin Gaye music is reported to have been found in Belgium 40 years after the singer’s death.
The tapes contain 66 demos of new and unheard songs recorded by the singer before his demise. Gaye left the tapes with Charles Dumolin, a musician who housed him during his stay in Ostend, Berlin in the late 80s.
However, Dumolin died in 2019, and the tapes are currently in the possession of his family members. The Dumolin family is now working with Belgian lawyer, Alex Trappeniers, in hopes of reaching some kind of compromise with Gaye’s estate to release the music.
“They belong to the Dumolin family because they were left in Belgium 42 years ago,” Marvin gave it to them and said, do whatever you want with it”, and he never came back. Alex Trappeniers, lawyer and business partner of the Dumolin family, told BBC.
Join our WhatsApp Channel for more news
Under Belgian property law, owning a property for 30 years makes it yours, even if it was stolen. However, this doesn’t apply to intellectual property. So, while the Dumolin family may own the tapes, publishing the songs would require an agreement with the Gaye family.
Gaye’s family has been made aware of the discovery, although they have yet to make a formal statement on the matter.
Marvin Pentz Gay Jnr, was an American singer and songwriter who became popular in the 1970s with hits like “ “Sexual Healing, What’s Going On” and “Let’s Get It On”. The singer met his untimely death in 1984 after his father, Marvin Gay Sr, shot him when he stepped in to break up a dispute between his parents.
