Civil lawsuits against British pop star Ed Sheeran over allegations of plagiarism began in New York on Monday. The 32-year-old has been accused of copying Marvin Gaye’s 1973 soul classic Let’s Get It On for his hit Thinking Out Loud.
Plaintiffs are the heirs of the late musician and producer Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On” with Gaye. They speak of “striking similarities and evident common elements” between the two songs. As evidence, they cite, among other things, that the band Boyz II Men have already performed medleys of the two songs – and Sheeran also put the two tracks together in 2014. The musician combined his song “Thinking Out Loud” with Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”. This fact is clearly demonstrated by the transcript. Sheeran is said to have criticized the allegation: “If I had done what you accuse me of, I would be an idiot to get on stage in front of 20,000 people and do that.” He mixes the songs at many performances, according to the singer.
The pop star said in his defence, “I think most pop songs are built on building blocks that have been freely available for hundreds of years.” He is said to have supported his statement by naming several songs that use the same chord sequences. “Many songs have similar chords.” Sheeran’s attorneys had previously put forward the same reasoning. There are “dozens or even hundreds of songs” from before or after “Let’s Get It On” that would use the “same or similar chord progression”.
The ballad “Thinking Out Loud” was released in 2014 and stormed to number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2016, the hit won the prestigious US Grammy award for best song of the year.
The legal dispute over the allegations of plagiarism has been going on for years. A first lawsuit filed in 2016 was initially dismissed, but a new lawsuit was filed the following year. Now the process began in New York. It’s not the first time Sheeran has had to defend himself in court against allegations of plagiarism. A year ago, the singer won a copyright lawsuit in London for his world hit “Shape of You”. The judge ruled that Sheeran “neither intentionally nor subconsciously” copied parts of “Oh Why” from Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.
Copyright disputes have repeatedly rocked the music industry. In 2015, the two US musicians Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were found guilty of allegations of plagiarism in connection with their song “Blurred Lines”. They are said to have helped themselves to the 1977 Marvin Gaye hit “Got to Give It Up” and were ordered to pay millions to the soul legend’s family.
The British rock band Led Zeppelin, on the other hand, was acquitted in 2016 of having stolen the intro of their legendary song “Stairway to Heaven” from the US formation Spirit.
