Since it hit global music charts in 2017, British pop star Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ has hardly ever been out of trend. It is again in the news, but not entirely for its thumping beats
Songwriters Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue claimed Ed Sheeran’s 2017 hit song ‘Shape of You’ infringes parts of one of their songs. AP
Since it hit global music charts in 2017, British pop star Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You has hardly ever been out of trend. It is again in the news, but not entirely for its thumping beats.
Grime artist Sam Chokri and producer Ross O’Donoghue have dragged the 31-year old artist to the London High Court for alleged copyright infringement.
The duo have accused Sheeran and his co-writers Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac of copying the main hook from their 2015 Oh Why song, alleging Sheeran lifted it to be used for the catchy ‘Oh I’ bit in his own song.
Let’s find out more about the legal battle that has raised questions about one of the most popular young artists of the last decade:
What’s the copyright case
Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch, has claimed that Sheeran’s No 1 single of 2017 “Shape of You” infringes “particular lines and phrases” of their 2015 song, “Oh Why” and is “strikingly similar”.
In the legal battle, all three on Sheeran’s side have denied the claims.
When Chokri’s lawyer Andrew Sutcliffe questioned in the court, Sheeran said he wasn’t aware of Chokri’s existence and had never heard the song before the case.
Sheeran argued that if he had plagiarised he wouldn’t have had a “long and successful career writing original songs”.
Despite Sheeran’s claims, Sutcliffe said that he and Chokri had appeared together on the British online music platform SBTV.
He claimed that Sheeran had also shouted Switch’s name at Reading Festival in 2011 after his friend Jamal Edwards asked him to do so.
Are there any similarities between the two songs?
According to a report by Sky News, Sheeran has argued in his written evidence that his song’s “Oh I” phrase uses “a basic minor pentatonic pattern” which is “entirely commonplace”.
US forensic musicologist Anthony Ricigliano, who was instructed by Sheeran’s team, said that it was “objectively unlikely” that any similarities between the songs “result from copying”.
He stated that “the overall design and musical development of the melodic, harmonic and lyrical content in the relevant phrase in Shape of You are distinctively different from that utilised in Oh Why“.
But in contrast, another musicology expert, Christian Siddell, instructed by Chokri’s lawyers, said he found melodic similarities were “so numerous and striking that the possibility of independent creation is… highly improbable”.
Siddell felt there had been “over emphasis” in relation to references to the minor pentatonic scale in the case, adding: “The Oh I and Oh Why phrases are melodies not scales.”
He concluded there were “striking and substantial similarities between certain aspects of the lead vocal melody of Oh Why and Shape Of You“.
It’s not Sheeran’s first legal rodeo
This isn’t the first time Sheeran has found himself involved in a copyright infringement case. The British singer has been involved in multiple such cases, including with the American girl group TLC’s 90s’ R&B hit No Scrubs.
After Shape of You was launched in 2017, TLC fans on Twitter found similarities between the two songs.
Not only did Sheeran and his co-writers give credit to the music group but also they settled the claim by giving the musicians a 15 per cent share in the royalties of the song.
Sheeran settled another claim out of court for his song Strip That Down, when social media went abuzz that it had similarities with reggae singer Shaggy’s 2000 hit It Wasn’t Me. Sheeran now pays a 25 per cent royalty to the writers and publishers of It Wasn’t Me.
The creators of a song titled Amazing also dragged Sheeran to court for his song Photograph. They claimed one-half of the song was copied “note-for-note”.
A $20 million lawsuit was settled outside the court as well as a 35 per cent share in Sheeran’s royalty.
With inputs from agencies
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