Ed Sheeran and his co-writers Steven McCutcheon and John McDaid are fighting a copyright claim in a London court, accused of ripping off a hook in Shape of You.
Sami Chokri, whose stage name is Sami Switch, and producer Ross O'Donoghue say it infringes on "particular lines and phrases" from their song called Oh Why.
The trial is expected to go for a few weeks.
What part is Sheeran accused of ripping off?
The "oh I" hook that's repeated before Sheeran sings "I'm in love with your body".
Chokri and O'Donoghue say it's "strikingly similar" to the "Oh Why" hook in their song.
The hook comes into play 1 minute and 16 seconds into the song:
What does the other song sound like?
Oh Why is a very different song with a slower tempo.
But the repeated hook "oh why, oh why, oh why, oh" sounds similar to Sheeran's song.
You can hear it from 38 seconds in:
When did they come out?
Oh Why was released in June 2015.
Shape of You was released in January 2017.
Chokri and O'Donoghe's legal team argue it was "extremely likely" Sheeran heard the song before Shape of You was written in October 2016.
But Sheeran and his co-writers deny this.
He said he didn't know of Sami Switch at the time and hadn't heard the song before he was accused of ripping it off.
Sheeran told the court he had quit social media in 2015 and, according to the BBC, was using a "flip phone from Tesco".
He said he "disappeared for the entire year" of 2016 and, while he was a music fan, he wasn't actively following the UK music scene at the time.
Sheeran admits similarities
"They're both pentatonic scales and they both use vowels," Sheeran told the court.
In court, Sheeran sang the "Oh I" hook and lines from songs including Nina Simone's Feeling Good in the same key to show how melodies can sound alike.
He said two melodies could sound similar, especially if they're in the same key, without one copying the other.
Sheeran also said that, lyrically, the two hooks weren't the same.
Here's an exchange between Chokri and O'Donoghe's lawyer Andrew Sutcliffe and Sheeran:
Sutcliffe: It sounds like you were singing 'Oh Why'
Sheeran: I was singing 'Oh I'.
Sheeran: The lyric is 'Oh I, I'm in love with your body'.
Sheeran: The lyric 'Oh Why, I'm in love with your body' does not make sense.
Don't singers reference other songs all the time?
It's pretty common.
But Sheeran argues that he credits the artists he references in his songs.
He's quoted by the BBC saying, "if I had heard Oh Why at the time and had referenced it, I would have taken steps to clear it".
"I do refer to other works on occasion when I write, as do many songwriters," he said.
"If there is a reference to another work, I notify my team so that steps can be taken to obtain clearance."
Sheeran said an early version of Shape of You had a hook that was changed after he realised it sounded similar to No Diggity by Blackstreet.
According to the BBC, Sheeran could be heard on a voice memo saying it was "a bit close to the bone" and needed to be changed.
In his witness statement, Sheeran said he had wanted to reference the TLC song No Scrubs in Shape of You and he attempted to clear it, but then the relevant part of the song was changed.
The No Scrubs writers were given a credit after Shape of You was released.
Why not just settle?
Sheeran isn't poor.
In November, he was named Heat Magazine's richest young British star for the third time in a row, with an estimated net worth of $426 million.
But it's unclear if that estimated net worth takes into account the royalties for Shape of You which, according to music masthead NME, have been frozen since 2018.
And given Shape of You is the most-streamed single of all time, it's worth quite a bit — NME estimated that it made at least $36 million.
The legal proceedings for this case began in 2018, when Sheeran, McCutcheon and McDaid asked the High Court to declare they hadn't infringed on Chokri and O'Donoghue's copyright for Oh Why.
Chokri and O'Donogue later filed a counterclaim.
Their lawyer accused Sheeran of lodging that initial claim to avoid legal costs, but he denied that.
"Me, Johnny and Steve are here to clear our name," he said.
Hasn't he had copyright dramas before?
Yep.
The most recent one (before this) was a lawsuit claiming he plagiarised Marvin Gaye's song Let's Get It On in his 2014 song Thinking Out Loud — something he denies.
Back in 2019, a judge dismissed Sheeran's request to have the case dismissed, declaring it should go to trial before a jury.
It appears the travel restrictions slowed proceedings after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and, based on the most recent court documents we've seen for the matter, it's unclear when the trial will begin.
In 2018, Aussie artists Sean Carey —a former guitarist for Thirsty Merc— and Beau Golden — a keyboardist and songwriter — launched legal action saying the 2017 song The Rest Of Our Life Sheeran co-wrote ripped off their 2015 song When I Found You.
That case was settled later that year, but it's unclear what the payout was.
In 2017, the BBC reported Sheeran settled with songwriters Thomas Leonard and Martin Harrington, who claimed his 2014 song Photograph had a similar structure to their song Amazing, which was released by X Factor winner Matt Cardle in 2012.
ABC with Reuters
