The British singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran is in the middle of a court case: The subject of the negotiations is Sheeran’s mega hit “Shape of You”, actually the line “Oh I”. This should be dangerously similar to the title “Oh Why” of his opponents. But suddenly the process revolves around an unreleased song by Sheeran.
Number 1 on the singles charts in 34 countries, number 1 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 for 16 consecutive weeks and now has over 3 billion streams on Spotify: Even for a superstar like Sheeran, “Shape of You” was a massive success. But his prosecutors Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue claim Sheeran infringed the copyright of their song “Oh Why,” released in 2015.
Accidentally, the court plays unreleased material
The latter, in turn, declares that he did not know the play. Intermediate versions of the super hit in question were supposed to be played during the hearing, but instead the court leaked unreleased material from the pop star. Irritated, Sheeran addressed his lawyers: “This is a song I wrote last January. Where did you get that from?”
It was a mistake, his defense attorney apologized and said: “It will not happen again”. The tune was sourced from Sheeran’s co-songwriter Steven McCutcheon’s personal computer, which included “some unreleased material.”
Sheeran tries to save himself with singing
To prove his innocence, the singer resorted to unconventional methods: he tried to sing the process of creating “Shape of You” in court. He also hummed and sang his 2013 tracks “I See Fire” and Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” to clarify: “If you put them in the same key, they all sound the same.” Those in it and in the title of the opponents used minor pentatonic is “very well known”.
But not only music recordings were played in the hearing, but also sound recordings from the studio. In one recording, Sheeran is heard saying the “Oh I” part is “a bit close to the bone”. This proverb generally describes a situation in which something comes so close to something else that it is uncomfortable. Sheeran said he was referring to Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” and suggested changing the similarity.
A musicologist would have listened to the hit and noted any similarities, which were then altered, according to Ed Sheeran. He had also wanted to coordinate with the songwriters of TLC’s “No Scrubs” before the release of the work, but they did not react early. In retrospect, he awarded them shares in “Shape of You”.
Most recently, Ed Sheeran stood trial against the ticket dealer Viagogo and won the case. Musically, he recently made headlines in collaborations with Taylor Swift and Bring Me The Horizon.