The plaintiff’s lawyers argued there were too many similarities between the songs to be coincidental, especially the songs’ hooks, which rhyme.
Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran won a years-long court battle in the U.K. over his 2017 hit “Shape Of You” — and promptly slammed such lawsuits as “damaging” to the industry. The Grammy Award winner, along with co-writers Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had been accused of copying part of the 2015 song “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri, who performs as Sami Switch. “Whilst we’re obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no basis for the claim,” Sheerhan said in a video posted online. “It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry.
