Beyonce accused of stealing Pipilotti Rist's visuals for 'Hold Up' music video

Rist’s 1997 project 'Ever Is Over All' features a woman smashing car windows

With the release of Lemonade, Beyoncé set the blogosphere on fire, with fans furiously dissecting the album’s lyrics and video companion, trying to gauge just how furious the songstress is with husband Jay-Z.

One of the stand-out videos is for the song "Hold Up", which sees the 34-year-old adorned in a yellow dress, strolling joyfully down a city street, smashing car windows with a baseball bat, singing: “Something don't feel right / Cause it ain't right / Especially comin' up after midnight”.

Since the release, the megastar has been accused of copying the visuals from Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist’s 1997 project “Ever Is Over All”, with a side-by-side comparison showing the similarities between the two.

In Rist’s video, a woman wearing a blue dress and red shoes is seen walking down a street, smashing car windows as a police officer walks past.

This isn’t the first time Beyoncé has been accused of plagiarism, with leading choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker saying in 2011 that the singer had used her dance moves in the video for “Countdown” without permission.

That same year, Queen B was accused of copying a Lorella Cuccarini production for her Billboard Awards 2011 performance of “Who Run The World (Girls)”.

Beyoncé went on to admit the performance was ‘inspired’ by Cuccarini.

More recently, in 2014, Hungarian folk singer Monika Miczura Juhasz, known professionally as Mitsou, lodged papers in New York claiming the singer had used an unauthorised vocal sample of her song “Bajba, bajba” in the song “Drunk In Love”.

Earlier this year, two filmmakers alleged that Beyoncé had used their footage without permission in the music video for “Formation”, with the singer’s people countering by saying they had been paid.

Meanwhile, Lemonade hit number one in the UK and US. This week it faces stiff competition from Drake and his new album Views.