Christian Nodal has momentarily fought his first legal battle with Universal Music. The Mexican regional singer appeared this Tuesday, November 18, in a hearing that lasted more than 16 hours and in which he was accompanied by his parents, Jesús Jaime González Terrazas and Silvia Cristina Nodal Jiménez: the three are accused by Universal of falsifying documents to support a civil lawsuit filed against the record label, in 2021, in which the Sonoran claims the rights to 50 songs. The lawsuit began after the artist decided to sign with Sony Music and not renew his contract with Universal that same year. This Wednesday, November 19, the Sonoran spoke with the media when leaving the Federal Criminal Justice Center, located next to the Oriente Prison. He said he was happy with the judge’s decision not to involve the Nodal family in the process. “We’ve been here for about 17 hours,” the artist said as he left the audience. “It was worth it; satisfactorily we were not linked. Just as the lawyer was given the opportunity to say that there were 33 false documents and that they were forging signatures, (I want) to tell you that a judge has already ruled that there is no link, there is not even a single piece of paper that justifies that we have falsified any document,” he added.
The FGR issued a statement to clarify that the judge did not exonerate the artist or the family, “she simply determined that there is another trial, of a civil nature, and it is necessary to wait for its result so that the criminal action proceeds, or not,” it reads.
The origin of the dispute
Christian Nodal was 17 years old when he signed his contract with Universal Music in 2017. As he was a minor, his parents acted as his legal representatives. In 2021, the artist and his family filed a civil lawsuit against Universal Music Grupo México after failing to reach an agreement to renew or cancel the contract he signed with them four years earlier. At the same time that both parties tried to reach an agreement, Nodal performed several duets—with Banda MS and Belinda, to name a few—and Universal approached the Mexican Association of Phonogram and Videogram Producers to have them execute a veto on the artist. The organization asked businessmen and artists to “refrain from hiring, disclosing, manufacturing, distributing, marketing, exploiting and/or selling the singer’s sound productions.”
After this, Nodal obtained protection and clarified the situation through a video broadcast live from his Instagram account. “Something crazy is happening. Many fans are worried about what is being said about me. I want to leave everyone calm and help me spread this video because it is impossible for them to continue committing this type of slavery of artists with record labels by force,” said the singer.
In the 2021 lawsuit, the Nodals claimed the copyright to 50 songs. However, Universal Music countersued the artist in 2024 for breach of contract, damages. As reported by this newspaper, Ulrich Richter Morales, legal representative of the Universal Music record label, asked the FGR to prosecute the case after identifying irregularities and inconsistencies in more than 30 documents provided by the Nodal family: false papers and signatures in which Universal supposedly transferred the rights to the Mexican regional singer.
Richter Morales explained in an interview for Radiofórmula in October 2025 that the original agreement stipulated that the man from Sonora would be the performer of the songs, but the owner of the works would be the record label. He also added that if the rights had been transferred to the artist, he would have received about 30 million pesos in royalties, money that Nodal’s legal team claims to have received in cash. “In this matter, which is very delicate, we see suspicious operations. Here there is an accumulation of irregular activities. If the contracts are true, you made a mixture of suspicious operations,” said the lawyer.
