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Ed Sheeran is one of the most followed singers of the current generation who is not just loved for his hit melody and lyrics, but also for his sweet and friendly persona. The artist landed in some hot mess recently when he was accused of plagiarizing a song from Sami Switch and producer Ross O’Donoghue’s Oh Why. At the recent court hearing in London, Ed Sheeran has stood his ground against the accusation, denying the claim that he knew of Switch way before the hit number was written.
For the unversed, the song Shape of You hit the market in 2017 and became one of the most streamed songs of that time. The musical piece was liked not just for its peppy tuning but also for its striking lyrics, helping the song maintain a top position in the charts for a long time.
A few years back Sami Chokri aka Sami Switch and Ross O’Donoghue claimed that the hood part of Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You was taken from their song Oh Why which was released in 2015. According to BBC News, their lawyer, Andrew Sutcliffe grilled the singer at London High Court, enquiring about his entire process of writing and making songs. The prosecutor also suggested that they had ‘overwhelming’ evidence proving that Ed was collecting ideas before writing his songs.
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Andrew accused Ed Sheeran by saying, “You alter words and music which belong to others just enough to think they will pass as original”. The singer however, confidently answered the questions raised for him and denied the allegation that he and his co-writers heard the song Oh Why before writing Shape of You.
The lawyer also highlighted that Ed Sheeran had screamed Sami Switch’s name at a live show in 2011, making it clear that he knew of the artist and his work. Ed replied to this by saying, “This isn’t stuff that’s true”.
Highlighting his track record so far, Ed Sheeran said, “I have already built a long and very successful career writing original songs for both myself and a wide range of other leading artists. I would not have been able to do that if I was in the habit of plagiarising other writers.”
The lawyer also brought up Ed Sheeran’s Photograph case where another pair of musicians had accused the British singer of copyright infringement. The singer ended up giving due credits in that case and also gave over 35% of the publishing revenues to the complainants.
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