ED Sheeran has arrived in court for the fourth day of his copyright battle over his mega hit Shape of You.
Songwriters Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue claim the singer’s 2017 number one infringes parts of one of their tracks.
1
They say the chorus of Sheeran’s tune, which goes “oh I oh I oh I”, was nicked from their chorus “oh why oh why oh why”.
The case began on Friday, with Andrew Sutcliffe, QC, for the two songwriters, accusing Sheeran of being a “magpie” who “borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he will acknowledge it but sometimes he won’t”.
The barrister alleged this depends on how famous the other artist is, adding the two in question “are not Shaggy, Coldplay, Rihanna or Jay-Z, if they were they would have been treated in a very different way”.
Sheeran denied he steals ideas, adding: “The examples he has been using are obviously famous artists, two of them are people I’ve made songs with.”
As the case continued, the flame-haired musician described his songwriting process, claiming to: “Hear a beat, hear a song, and a melody comes out.”
Sheeran today turned up to the Rolls Building of the High Court wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie.
Most read in The Sun
Legal proceedings began in May 2018 when the star and his Shape of You co-authors asked the High Court to declare they had not infringed Mr Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue’s copyright.
Two months later, the pair issued their own claim for “copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement”.
They allege the hit-maker met Mr Chokri at a party in a central London Nando’s in 2011 where he hung out with his “best friend” Jamal Edwards.
Sheeran was then played Mr Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue’s track, which was copied for Shape of You, their lawyer claims.
But Sheeran says he has “no recollection” of meeting Mr Chokri, and claims Mr Edwards only started sharing music with him from 2015.
The flame-haired superstar, 31, had his royalties frozen for the bestselling sing – likely missing out on an estimated £20million.
The hearing is expected last three weeks.
Sheeran has written four studio albums along with one collaboration album and has had over 40 hit singles since his first was released in 2011.
He has also penned tunes for countless top-selling artists including One Direction, Justin Bieber, Zara Larson, Anne Marie and Little Mix.
