Could one of the greatest songs of the century be inspired by another piece? This is the question that Ed Sheeran is subject to. The British star appeared in court on Friday where he is being sued by two songwriters who accuse him of plagiarism for his hit Shape Of You. The artist appeared in person at the High Court in London on the first day of the trial scheduled to last three weeks.
He is accused by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue of being partly inspired by their title oh why for the melody of his planetary tube Shape Of You, the best-selling title in the world in 2017. The two songs were broadcast on Friday in the courtroom presided over by judge Antony Zacaroli. For the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Andrew Sutcliffe, “the similarity” between certain passages “is striking”, they are “almost identical”.
“Ed Sheeran is a magpie”
“Mr. Sheeran is undoubtedly very talented, he is a genius. But it’s also a magpie,” he added, referring to the bird which is sometimes accused of being a thief. “He borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he acknowledges it, sometimes he doesn’t,” he continued. It “depends on who you are and whether he thinks he can do it with impunity.”
The lawyer pointed out that his clients are “very talented songwriters, who deserve the same respect as any other artist and recognition when it is due”.
The singer denies in block
Ed Sheeran and his co-authors, Steven McCutcheon and John McDaid denied these accusations. They had applied in May 2018 to the High Court for it to recognize that there had been no copyright infringement. Two months later, in July, Chokri and O’Donoghue in turn began legal proceedings against them.
The payment of royalties related to Shape Of Youestimated at 20 million pounds sterling (24 million euros at the current rate) according to the newspaper The Telegraphhas been suspended by the collective management organization PRS.
In 2017, Ed Sheeran was also the artist who sold the most albums in the world, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), with his third album divide which includes the single Shape Of You.