Many Ed Sheeran fans are rushing to hear the song he is accused of stealing from for his hit single “Shape of You”.
The singer-songwriter has appeared in court this week after standing accused by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.
They allege that Sheeran stole elements of 2017’s “Shape of You” from their own song, titled “Oh Why”.
The pair claim that Sheeran’s song has taken “particular lines and phrases” from their own, claiming that his refrain of the words “Oh I” is “strikingly similar” to their delivery of the words “Oh why”.
Judge Antony Zacaroli listened to both songs in court, with Chokri and O’Donoghue’s lawyer, Andrew Sutcliffe, telling him they “sound almost identical”.
However, Sheeran argued this was not the case, going so far as to perform other songs, including Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” and Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good”, in an attempt to demonstrate how common the song’s melody is.
The song, performed by Chokri under the name Sami Switch, is available on YouTube here.
It was Sheeran and his team who first launched legal proceedings over the song in 2018, requesting the High Court declare they had not infringed Chokri and O’Donoghue’s copyright.
However, Chorki and O’Donoghue retaliated by issuing their own claim of “copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in retaliation to the alleged infringement”, which is the basis of the current trial
Sheeran’s lawyers previously told the court that the singer and the song’s co-writers have no memory of ever hearing the song “Oh Why”.
