British singer Ed Sheeran has won a case for alleged plagiarism in his track “Thinking Out Loud” – a jury in New York decided that the musician did not copy Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”, according to The New York Times.
The lawsuit against Sheeran was filed by the heirs of Ed Townsend, co-writer of the song “Let’s Get It On”. The lawsuit stated that key elements from “Let’s Get It On” could be heard on Sheeran’s composition “Thinking Out Loud”. In this way, Sheeran copied the “heart” of Gay and Townsend’s composition, they claimed.
Sheeran and his lawyers did not deny that the chords in the two songs were similar, but called them common musical building blocks that were used in dozens of other songs. Shortly before the jury made their decision, the singer promised to end his musical career if the court finds him a plagiarist. writes “BBC”.
After the announcement of the verdict, the musician said that he was very pleased with the outcome of the case. “Looks like I won’t have to leave my job after all,” he said.
Sheeran also noted that he considers it wrong that such accusations even reach the court.
For the last eight years we have been talking about two songs with completely different lyrics, melodies and four chords that are also different and are used by songwriters every day all over the world. These chords are common building blocks that have been used to make music long before “Let’s Get It On” was written and will be used to make music long after we’re all gone.
In 2022, Sheeran won another claim for copyright infringement. Then the musician was accused of the fact that his song “The Shape of You” is a plagiarism of the song “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri, which was released two years earlier.
