Ed Sheeran wins lawsuit against artist who claimed he copied "Shape of You"
Remember 2017, when you couldn’t visit a bar or a club without listening to “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran blaring on the speakers? Well, the song became associated with a pretty bad memory for Sheeran and his team.
Following the release of “Shape of You,” hiphop artist Sami “Switch” Chokri alleged that Sheeran and his cowriters, Steven McCutcheon and John McDaid McCutcheon, had copied part of his 2015 song, “Oh Why.”
Well, after a gruelling UK-based legal battle that lasted years, a judge announced Sheeran’s victory in the case on Wednesday.
The star took to Instagram to announce that he had won the lawsuit, and discussed why such allegations should not be thrown around flippantly in the music industry.
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“Dealing with a lawsuit recently. We won and I wanted to share a few words about it all,” his caption read.
“I wanted to make a small video to talk about [the case] a bit because I’ve not really been able to say anything whilst it’s been going on,” Sheeran began. “Whilst we’re obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and it’s become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court — even if there’s no basis for the claim.”
The 31-year-old said claims as such were damaging to the songwriting industry.
“There’s only so many notes and very few chords used, and a pop music coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify,” he reasoned. “There’s 22 million songs, yet there’s only 12 notes that are available.”
The singer-songwriter added that he didn’t want to take anything away from the pain and hurt suffered by both sides of this case, but wanted to stress that he wasn’t an entity or a corporation.
“I’m a father, I’m a husband, I’m a son. Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience. I hope that this ruling it means in the future, baseless claims like this can be avoided.”
He concluded the statement by expressing gratitude for the support people in the music industry have offered him and his cowriters.
“Hopefully we can all get back to writing songs rather than having to prove that we can write them. Thank you.”
Following the statement, Chokri posted a video of the outdoors to his Instagram story. It included a vague caption, possibly about the lost lawsuit.
@sami_switch | Instagram
“Through the despair, I found an instant highway to gratitude. I am rich, of love, friends, and family. This is the beginning, not the end,” it reads.
Chokri’s most recent Instagram post, posted 20 weeks ago, was being bombarded with comments from Sheeran’s fans before the rapper closed his comments section.
“You tried to bleed Ed dry for a coincidental vague similarity and you failed. Loser,” said one Instagram user.
But Sheeran’s cousin and coworker Jethro Sheeran commented to clear the air and help protect Chokri from the barrage of vitriol coming his way as a result of the verdict.