He had come himself to plead his case in court: Ed Sheeran, British pop superstar has just been cleared of all suspicion of plagiarism by the High Court in London on Wednesday. Indeed, since the release of its tube Shape of you (the best-selling title in the world in 2017), two songwriters accused him of being greatly inspired by one of their songs before composing it.
Ed Sheeran, 31, did not copy, “neither deliberately nor unconsciously“, part of the melody of the song oh why by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue for his planetary hit, underlined judge Antony Zacaroli. For plaintiffs’ attorney Andrew Sutcliffe, on the other hand, “similarity“between certain passages was”striking“, they are “almost identical“. Very angry, he and his two clients called Ed Sheeran a “magpie“, the robber bird, explaining that he “borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he acknowledges it, sometimes not, it depends on who you are and if he thinks he can do it with impunity“.
Very harsh words for the lawyer, who asked “the same respect as any other artist and recognition when due” for its customers, “very talented songwriters“. Since the beginning of the accusations, Ed Sheeran and his two co-authors, Steven McCutcheon and John McDaid, rejected the accusations en bloc. After the formalization of this victory, Ed Sheeran wanted to speak in person in a video posted on his Instagram account captioned: “I faced a lawsuit recently. We won and I wanted to share a few months about it.“