Ed Sheeran won a court battle over the plagiarism accusation on his 2017 hit ‘Shape of You’. Here’s all you need to know.
Ed Sheeran shuts down ‘baseless claims’
British pop star Ed Sheeran and his co-writers of ‘Shape of You‘, John McDaid of Snow patrol, and Steven McCutcheon denied allegations that they copied a part of “Oh Why” a 2015 song by Sami Chokri. However, Shreen and his co-writers stated that they did not hear the song before the court case. Judge Antony Zaracoli, in the ruling on Wednesday, concluded that Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase.
The judge acknowledged the “similarities between the one-bar phrase” in the two songs. However, he clarified that “such similarities are only a starting point for a possible infringement”. After studying the elements he stated that there are “differences between the relevant parts” of ‘Oh Why’ and “Shape of You’. This “provides compelling evidence that the ‘Oh I’ phrase” in Sheeran’s song is from different sources other than ‘Oh Why’.
Chokri performs under the stage name Sami Switch. The singer claimed that the “Oh I” hook in the 2017 hit was “strikingly similar” to the”Oh why” refrain in his work. Following the ruling, Sheeran stated that such “baseless claims are way too common”.
Additionally, in a video, he stated that there is a culture “where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court. Even if there’s no basis for the claim”. It’s damaging to the songwriting industry. There are only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify. That’s 22 million songs a year and there are only 12 available notes,” he added.
