British megastar and chart-dominating artist, Ed Sheeran, will be appearing before a court of law to defend himself against the allegations that he copied Marvin Gaye on his global smash hit ‘Thinking Out Loud’.
According to reports, the Pop star has been told by a Federal Judge that he must face trial in a judgment delivered on Thursday, 29th September 2022, where US District Judge Louis Stanton declared that a jury will have to determine the level of similarity between both songs after a disagreement between musical experts on both sides of the lawsuit.
The accusation filed against him is that he copied Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit single, ‘Let’s Get It On’ on his 2014 single ‘Thinking Out Loud’.
The lawsuit was filed in 2018 by investment banker, David Pullman, and Structured Asset Sales, which acquired part of the estate of ‘Let’s Get It On’ co-writer Ed Townsend.
The plaintiffs are Seeking $100m (£90m) in damages, over allegations that allege that Ed Sheeran and his co-writer, Amy Wadge “copied and exploited, without authorization or credit” the Marvin Gaye song, “including but not limited to the melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation, and looping”.
Ed Sheeran had applied to the court asking that the copyright claims be struck out for being “baseless” and “way too common”.
Ed and his co-writers, John McDaid and Steven McCutcheon, were recently the subjects of a lawsuit over accusations that part of the chorus on their song ‘Shape Of You’ ripped off ‘Oh Why’, a 2015 record by Ross O’Donoghue and Sami Chokri.
In the trial that took place in March 2022, the High Court Judge declared that the imitation was “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” and awarded Ed and his co-defendants £900,000 in costs.
After his victory in Court, Ed posted on his Instagram page that he hopes the ruling will bring an end to future baseless claims.
Story: Hilda Katu
Media: @Edsheerandouble/Instagram